The Most Anticipated Films of Venice Film Festival 2024
The Venice Film Festival kicks off this week, with a lineup featuring Hollywood royalty, legends of auteur cinema and some of the year’s most eagerly anticipated releases.
Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Put simply, the lineup of films premiering at the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival is exceptional. While last year’s edition pushed directors to the forefront of the press lineup due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes, this year’s guest list is packed with Hollywood royalty, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Joaquin Phoenix, Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman. Following last year’s win by Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, viewers and critics are eagerly speculating who will be the 2024 recipient of the Golden Lion.
Starting the festival off is Tim Burton’s highly anticipated sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which will be shown out of competition. It features both members of the original cast from the 1988 cult comedy, including Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara, as well as new additions Monica Bellucci and Jenna Ortega.
Another eagerly awaited sequel premiering at the festival is Todd Philips’ Joker: Folie A Deux starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. Described in intriguing terms as a “jukebox musical” the film is said to include an “exceptional performance” by Phoenix, according to artistic director of the Venice Film Festival Alberto Barbera.
Other notable releases include Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. Set in New York, Almodóvar’s first film in English follows the complex story of an imperfect mother and her daughter as they navigate their separated relationship.
Brazilian director of The Motorcycle Diaries Walter Salles also returns to screens for the first time since 2012 with I’m Still Here. Based on the memoir of Marcelo Rubens Paiva, the story looks at the 1970s Brazilian dictatorship, which exerted authority through detentions and disappearances.
The ’70s take center stage once more as the setting of Maria, a biopic detailing the final days of one of the world’s best opera singers, Maria Callas (played by Angelina Jolie). The film is directed by Pablo Larrian, who is renowned for his previous biopic’s including Jackie and Spencer.
Hot off the release of one of the most talked about films of 2024, Challengers, Luca Guadagnino returns to his Call Me By Your Name roots with another gay romance, aptly titled Queer. An adaptation of William Burroughs’s 1985 novel of the same title, the film stars Daniel Craig as an outcast expat obsessed with a younger man in 1940s Mexico City. Drew Starkey, known for his role in the popular Netflix series Outerbanks, stars as the object of Craig’s desires. Notably, pop star Omar Apollo will also make his film debut.
Following the theme of age gap romantic obsessions, Halina Reijn premieres her latest errotic thriller, Babygirl. It stars Nicole Kidman as a dissatisfied CEO embarking on a sadomasochistic affair with her assistant, played by Triangle of Sadness star Harris Dickinson.
Turning to the French selections, notable films include brothers Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma’s eagerly awaited adaptation of Nicolas Mathieu’s 2018 Goncourt Prize bestseller Leurs enfants après eux (And Their Children After Them). The film follows the trajectories of teenagers in search of emancipation in eastern France, starring Paul Kircher, Sayyid El Alami, Ludivine Sagnier and Gilles Lellouche. Another French sibling director duo, Delphine and Muriel Coulin, premiere their new film Jouer avec le feu (Playing With Fire), which stars Vincent Lindon as a father navigating his son’s (played by Benjamin Voisin) fall into a far-right group.
Several highly anticipated films are also due to premiere in the festival’s Out of Competition section. They include divisive American filmmaker Harmony Korine’s thriller Baby Invasion, which explores the topic of an AI invasion; Alfonso Cuaron’s Apple TV show Disclaimer, starring Cate Blanchett as an investigative journalist whose career is threatened by the appearance of a mysterious novel exposing her secrets; and the reunion of Brad Pitt and George Clooney as mercenaries in John Watts’ Wolfs.
This year, American actress Sigourney Weaver, famous for her roles in Alien and Ghostbusters, will be the recipient of the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement. Australian director Peter Weir, best known for Dead Poets Society and The Truman Show, will also be recognised for his work, with the prestigious Lion of Honor. Beloved French actress Isabelle Huppert (Elle, The Piano Teacher) serves as president of the competition’s jury. Mastermind will be attending too. See you on the Lido!