The 83rd Venice International Film Festival will open on Sept. 2 with the world premiere of Danny Boyle's "Ink," a drama that reconstructs press baron Rupert Murdoch's 1969 takeover of the British tabloid The Sun, festival organizer La Biennale di Venezia confirmed this month. The nine-day event on the Lido di Venezia runs through Sept. 12, when Giovanni Veronesi's out-of-competition comedy "Dio ride" closes the program after the awards ceremony.
"Ink," starring Jack O'Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, is also entered in the main competition for the Golden Lion, the festival's top prize, alongside 19 other features. La Biennale, which organizes the festival, said the selection was made by artistic director Alberto Barbera, who has led the Mostra's programming for most of the past two decades.
A crowded field for the Golden Lion
The Venezia 83 competition mixes festival regulars with directors making rarer appearances on the Lido. Werner Herzog returns with "Bucking Fastard," featuring Kate Mara, Rooney Mara, Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson. Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda brings "Look Back," and South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong enters "Ga-neung-han sa-rang" ("Possible Love") with Jeon Do-yeon. Nanni Moretti competes with "Succederà questa notte," in which he also appears on screen alongside Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca.
The lineup carries substantial star power beyond the directors' chairs. Martin McDonagh's "Wild Horse Nine" pairs John Malkovich with Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi and Tom Waits. Florian Zeller's "Bunker" stars Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Stephen Graham and Paul Dano, and Lance Oppenheim's "Primetime" casts Robert Pattinson opposite Merritt Wever and Phoebe Bridgers. Organizers pointed to a notably strong Italian presence this year, with competition entries from Marco Bechis, Edoardo De Angelis, Andrea Pallaoro and Paolo Strippoli in addition to Moretti.
The rest of the competition ranges widely in scale and subject. Ilya Khrzhanovsky, the Russian filmmaker behind the sprawling "DAU" project, returns with a new feature starring conductor Teodor Currentzis. French director Stéphane Brizé's "Un bon petit soldat" pairs Alba Rohrwacher with Vincent Lindon, while Andrea Pallaoro's "The Echo Chamber" brings together Luca Marinelli, Alicia Vikander and Susan Sarandon. Iranian director Ali Asgari, a regular on the festival circuit, enters "Kami nour" ("A Bit of Light"). Casey Affleck also has a directing credit in competition with "Company," starring Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn.
Two careers, one honor
La Biennale's board, acting on Barbera's recommendation, will present the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn, recognizing careers that each span roughly five decades. Clooney's citation points to his work as actor, director and producer on films including "Syriana," "Good Night, and Good Luck" and this year's "Jay Kelly." Burstyn's award recognizes a body of work running from "The Exorcist" and her Oscar-winning turn in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" through "Requiem for a Dream" and, more recently, "Interstellar."
The festival will also give its Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker award to Luca Guadagnino and its Campari Passion for Film honor to Serena Rossi. Actors Greta Scarano and Nicolas Maupas are set to host the opening and closing ceremonies.
Founded in 1932, Venice is widely regarded as the world's oldest film festival, and its early-September slot at the start of the fall calendar has long made it a launching pad for the awards season that follows. Last year's Golden Lion went to Jim Jarmusch's family drama "Father Mother Sister Brother," an upset over presumed front-runners that surprised many critics on the Lido.
Public ticket subscriptions went on sale in July for screenings across the festival's venues on the Lido, with the top-priced evening subscriptions at the main hall, the Sala Grande, running as high as €1,600. Smaller venues, including Sala Corinto and Sala Volpi, offer subscriptions starting around €50, putting at least part of the festival within reach of ordinary filmgoers rather than only industry badge-holders.
The slate faces its first real test once screenings begin Sept. 2, with distributors watching closely for the specialty and awards-season titles most likely to carry momentum into Telluride, Toronto and the winter awards circuit that follows.
