The opening match of the Italian quintet competing for the Golden Lion will be on Saturday 31 August «Battlefield» by the Calabrian director Gianni Ameliowill be followed on Monday 2nd September by «Vermiglio» by Maura Delpero; on Tuesday 3rd September by «Queer» by Luca Guadagnino; on Wednesday 4th September by «Diva Futura» by Giulia Louise Steigerwalt and, finally, Thursday 5 September «Iddu» by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza from Palermo. These are the five key events in the screening calendar for the public at the 81st Venice Film Festival.
Here is a short day-by-day diary of what you will see at the Lido from August 28th to September 7th.
Tuesday 27 August, pre-opening ceremony: in Sala Darsena there is L’oro di Napoli by Vittorio De Sica for Venezia Classici.
Wednesday 28th the traditional opening ceremony, presented this year by Sveva Alviti in the Sala Grande, followed by the awarding of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Sigourney Weaver. Following, the opening film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice by Tim Burton (Out of Competition) and the opening film of Orizzonti, Despite by Valerio Mastandrea.
Thursday 29th in competition Maria by Pablo Larrain with Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher and Kill The Jockey by Luis Ortega. Then, out of competition, Disclaimer (Chap, 1-4) the series by Alfonso Cuaron, and Separated by Errol Morris in the Out of Competition-Non Fiction section. Also out of competition on Thursday Leopardi il poeta dell’infinito (Part 1 and 2), the fiction by Sergio Rubini.
On Friday 30th, in competition, it is the turn of Babygirl by Halina Reijn with Nicole Kidman and Trois Amies by Emmanuel Mouret; Cloud by Kiyoshi Kurosawa will instead be out of competition. Then there is space for the second part of Disclaimer (Ch. 5-7) by Cuarón and, finally, Diciannove by Giovanni Tortorici in Orizzonti.
On Saturday 31st the first Italian film in competition, Campo di battaglia by Catanzaro native Gianni Amelio and, also in competition, The Order by Justin Kurzel and Leurs enfants après eux by Ludovic Boukherma Zoran. Out of competition, Baby Invasion by Harmony Korine and the docu Why War by Amos Gitai.
Sunday 1st September in competition I’m Still Here by Walter Salles and The Brutalist by Brady Corbet. Out of competition instead arrives the awaited Wolfs by Jon Watts with Brad Pitt and George Clooney. On the Italian front out of competition Se posso perdermi Capitolo 2 by Marco Bellocchio.
Monday 2nd is the turn of the second Italian film in competition, Vermiglio by Maura Delpero and the return to the Lido of Pedro Almodovar who runs with The Room Next Door. Then the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Peter Weir and the presentation of the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker award to Claude Lelouch.
Tuesday 3rd is the day of Queer, the long-awaited film by Luca Guadagnino in the running for the Golden Lion. Also in competition is Harvest by Athina Rachel Tsangari, while out of competition are Maldoror by Fabrice Du Welz and 2073 by Asif Kapadia and, for Italy, Bestiari, erbari, lapidari by Martina Parenti.
Wednesday 4th sees the arrival in competition for Italy of Giulia Louise Steigerwalt’s Diva futura, but it is also the day of the long-awaited Joker: folie à Deux by Todd Phillips with Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson. Also competing is the French film Jouer avec le feu by Muriel Coulin.
Thursday 5th sees the arrival of Iddu by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, running for Italy with Toni Servillo, Elio Germano, Barbora Bobulova, Fausto Russo Alesi, Tommaso Ragno, freely inspired by a period in the life of Matteo Messina Denaro. Also in the running are Stranger Eyes by Yeo Siew Hua and April by Dea Kulumbegashvili. Thursday is also the day of the Sky Original series M – Il figlio del secolo (ep. 1-4) by Joe Wright with Luca Marinelli, Francesco Russo, Barbara Chichiarelli, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Gaetano Bruno and Paolo Pierobon, based on the novel by Antonio Scurati, and Russians at War by Anastasia Trofimova.
On Friday 6th, Love by Dag Johan Haugerud and the Chinese Youth Homecoming, the last part of a trilogy by Wang Bing, will be in competition. Then there will be the presentation of the Campari Passion award to Paola Comencini and, finally, the second part (ep. 5-8) of M – Son of the Century.
Saturday 7th, the final day, the closing film L’orto americano by Pupi Avati arrives, which will be shown in the Sala Grande after the awards ceremony. On the same day, also Horizon: an american saga by Kevin Costner, chapters 1 and 2.