French actress Isabelle Huppert is set to preside over the jury of the annual Venice International Film Festival, which begins on Wednesday, attracting a slew of Hollywood stars.
Expected attendees include Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Lady Gaga, Daniel Craig, and Brad Pitt, bringing a much-needed dose of Hollywood glamour to "La Mostra", the world’s longest-running film festival.
Last year’s event was notably dimmed by Hollywood strikes, which kept many studio films and their stars away.
This year, the festival opens with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the highly anticipated sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 cult classic.
The film, featuring returning stars Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara, and Winona Ryder, is not in contention for the top Golden Lion prize.
American actress Sigourney Weaver, famed for her role in Alien, will be honoured with a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement during Wednesday's opening night.
A total of 84 films are included in the official 2024 selection, with competitions across five categories, including one for immersive cinema.
Films in competition
High-profile contenders for the Golden Lion include Joker: Folie à Deux by Todd Phillips, a sequel to his 2019 Venice-winning film that pairs Joaquin Phoenix with Lady Gaga.
Another standout is Queer from Italian director Luca Guadagnino, starring Daniel Craig and based on the William Burroughs novel set in 1940s Mexico City.
Angelina Jolie stars in Maria, a biopic of Maria Callas directed by Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain, who returns to Venice following his success with Spencer in 2021. Nicole Kidman and Antonio Banderas lead in the erotic thriller Babygirl from Dutch director Halina Reijn.
The main competition also features The Room Next Door, the first English-language film from Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore.
Jude Law stars as an FBI agent investigating a terror ring in The Order, an Australian drama directed by Justin Kurzel.
Drama on screen
To avoid off-screen drama, Maria will premiere on the festival’s first full day, Thursday, while Wolfs, starring Brad Pitt, will screen out of competition on Sunday.
The Apple TV+ film, directed by Jon Watts of Spider-Man fame, features Pitt and Clooney as rival professional fixers in an action-packed comedy.
Also screening out of competition is the second chapter of Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga. The first part of this Western epic premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Predicting future glory
The Venice International Film Festival has become known for showcasing films that go on to achieve Oscar success, including previous Golden Lion winners like Poor Things, Nomadland, and Joker.
Unlike the rival Cannes Film Festival, Venice’s "Mostra" is open to the public and allows films produced by streaming services to compete. Netflix has had significant success launching titles like Maestro and Roma at Venice.
In addition to Wolfs, Apple TV+ is premiering Disclaimer, a thriller series starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, and Sacha Baron Cohen.
Joining Huppert on the jury are filmmakers James Gray (US), Andrew Haigh (UK), Agnieszka Holland (Poland), Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil), Abderrahmane Sissako (Mauritania), Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy), Julia von Heinz (Germany), and Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi.
