This morning in Rome, Biennale president Paolo Baratta and Venice Film Festival chief Alberto Barbera unveiled the lineup for the 71st Venice Film Festival, which features some extraordinarily exciting titles and intriguingly under-the-radar picks.
Twenty films will be competing in the main competition, 19 of which are world premieres with one international premiere out of the lot. Out of all the titles at Venice this year, Birdman, which stars Michael Keaton and features a star-studded cast including Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone and Naomi Watts, is undoubtedly the title with the most chance of gaining Oscar attention this year after making the rounds on the festival circuit (it’s heading to the Toronto International Film Festival next).
Also anticipated are Manglehorn, a collaboration between Prince Avalanche helmer David Gordon Green and Al Pacino, and Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill, with Ethan Hawke, Bruce Greenwood, January Jones and Zoe Kravitz.
The full list of in-competition titles is below:
- Three Hearts (dir. Benoit Jacquot)
- Le Rancon De Glory (dir. Xavier Beauvois)
- Le dernier coup de marteau (dir. Alix Delaporte)
- Loin des hommes (dir. David Oelhoffen)
- Birdman (dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
- 99 Homes (dir. Ramin Bahrani)
- Good Kill (dir. Andrew Niccol)
- Manglehorn (dir. David Gordon Green)
- Pasolini (dir. Abel Ferrera)
- Il giovane favoloso (dir. Mario Martone)
- Anime nere (dir. Francesco Munzi)
- Hungry Hearts (dir. Saverio Costanzo)
- The Cut (dir. Fatih Akin)
- A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting On Existence (dir. Roy Andersson)
- The Look of Silence (dir. Joshua Oppenheimer)
- The Postman’s White Nights (dir. Andrej Konchalovsky)
- Fires on the Plain (dir. Shinya Tsukamoto)
- Red Amnesia (dir. Wang Xioshuai)
- Tales (dir. Rakhshan Bani-Eternad)
- Sivas (dir. Kaan Mujdeci)
Out of competition, there are also a lot of exciting titles. Peter Bogdanovich is bringing She’s Funny That Way, aka Squirrels to the Nuts, with Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots and Jennifer Aniston. James Franco’s The Sound and the Fury will screen, as will Barry Levinson’s The Humbling. I’m most excited for Laika’s latest, animated lark The Boxtrolls, and practically its polar opposite, Lars von Trier’s director’s cut of Nymphomaniac: Part II. Also included is The Golden Era, which will close the festival:
- Words with Gods (dir. Guillermo Arriaga, Emir Kusturica, Amos Gitai, Mira Nair, Warwick Thornton, Hector Babenco, Bahman Ghobadi, Hideo Nakata, Alex De La Iglesia)
- She’s Funny that Way (dir. Peter Bogdanovich)
- Dearest (dir. Peter Ho-Sun Chan)
- Olive Kitteredge (dir. Lisa Cholodenko)
- Burying the Ex (dir. Joe Dante)
- Perez (dir. Edoardo De Angelis)
- La Zuppa del Demonio (dir. Davide Ferrario)
- The Sound and the Fury (dir. James Franco)
- Tsili (dir. Amos Gitai)
- La Trattavita (dir. Sabina Guzzanti)
- Make-Up (dir. Kwontaek Im)
- The Golden Era (dir. Ann Hui)
- The Humbling (dir. Barry Levinson)
- The Old Man of Belem (dir. Manoel De Oliviera)
- Italy in a Day (dir. Gabriele Salvatores)
- In the Basement (dir. Ulrich Seidl)
- The Boxtrolls (dir. Anthony Stacchi, Annable Graham)
- Nymphomaniac Volume 2: Director’s Cut (dir. Lars Von Trier)
There are also the Horizon films at the Venice Film Festival. These titles depict new trends in cinema:
- Theeb (dir. Naji Abu Nowar)
- Line of Credit (dir. Salome Alexi)
- Senza Nessuna Pieta (dir. Michele Alhaique)
- Cymbeline (dir. Michael Almereyda)
- Io Sto con la Sposa (dir. Antonio Augugliaro, Gabriele Del Grande, Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry)
- La Vita Oscena (dir. Renato De Maria)
- Near Death Experience (dir. Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern)
- Realite (dir. Quentin Dupieux)
- Goodnight Mommy (dir. Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala)
- Hill of Freedom (dir. Hong Sang-Soo)
- Bypass (dir. Duane Hopkins)
- The President (dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
- Your Right Mind (dir. Ami Canaan Mann)
- Belluscone, Una Storia Siciliana (dir. Franco Maresco)
- Nabat (dir. Elchin Musaoglu)
- Heaven Knows What (dir. Josh & Ben Safdie)
- These are the Rules (dir. Ognjen Svilicic)
- Court (dir. Chaitanya Tamhane)
What are you excited for that’s premiering at the Venice Film Festival? Let us know below!