At the Cannes halfway mark, talk is turning to the Venice Film Festival line-up.
Benny Safdie’s A24 title The Smashing Machine starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, and films from Chloe Zhao, Edward Berger, Alice Winocour and Yorgos Lanthimos are all being tipped to debut on the Lido.
After a quiet 2024 in Venice, Netflix may be back with Berger’s Macao-set The Ballad Of A Small Player starring Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton. Focus Features has two major possibilities: Zhao’s Hamnet, starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal (although the Nov 27 US release date may suggest a later festival bow), and Lanthimos’ Bugonia starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons.
Luca Guadagnino’s crime drama After The Hunt starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield and Chloe Sevigny at Amazon MGM Studios would mark a welcome return for the Italian director, who attended the Lido with Queer last year.
Mubi’s Jim Jarmusch’s comedy drama Father Mother Sister Brother with Cate Blanchett and Adam Driver was a surprise Cannes absentee and may resurface on the Lido, while Venice could prove good timing for Brazilian Karim Aïnouz’s English-language thriller Rosebush Pruning, that stars Elle Fanning, Riley Keogh, and Pamela Anderson.
Romain Gavras’ English-language debut Sacrifice boasts red carpet eye-candy in the form of Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Salma Hayek Pinault, and Charli XCX, while Winocour’s fashion world drama Couture starring Angelina Jolie, and Laszlo Nemes’ historical drama Orphan are also understood to be eying Lido launches.
Comedy thriller No Other Choice from South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook should be locked in time for Venice and would mark 20 years since his Lady Vengeance played in Competition on the Lido. It was not ready for Cannes where Park won best director in 2022 for the mystery Decision To Leave. CJ ENM handles sales.
Daniel Day-Lewis’s return to acting in son Ronan Day-Lewis’s family drama Anemone at Focus Features opens on October 3 and could be in the frame, while German filmmaker Ilker Catak’s The Teachers’ Lounge follow-up Yellow Letters is a possibility, as are Emily Atef’s Call Me Queen; Dutch filmmaker Nanouk Leopold’s Ireland-shot Whitetail; and Dara Van Dusen’s western A Prayer For The Dying starring John C. Reilly and Johnny Flynn.
And say it quietly but, after years of speculation, Venice could play host to Lucrecia Martel’s long-gestating untitled documentary about Indigenous activist Javier Chocobar.
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