For it’s 80th edition Wednesday, the Venice Film Festival, the world’s oldest, has surmounted the complication of Hollywood’s ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes to have what looks remarkably like business as (almost) usual.
In its 10-day run, Venice boasts an enviable first look line-up of the awards’ season’s most high-profile premieres. The buzz hopefully translates into awards bait as the calendar year ends and Oscars loom.
Once it became apparent the strikes would not end before Venice began, the festival lost only one entry – “Challengers,” a tennis comedy with Zendaya, was pulled from its opening night slot and postponed until April 2024.
That means this 80th edition is embarking on uncharted territory, for never has Venice been starless on its red carpet.
However, because the Directors Guild of America settled a new contract last spring, boldface filmmakers can – and will — be here when the actors cannot.
That means Sofia Coppola can offer “Priscilla,” her biopic of the teenager who became Mrs. Elvis Presley, Michael Mann will highlight his biopic about the legendary race car driver Enzo Ferrari in, of course, “Ferrari.” As will David Fincher (“Gone Girl”) with “The Killer” which teams Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton. Ava DuVernay unveils “Origin” starring Aunjanue Ellis (“King Richard”) and Niecy Nash-Betts while Richard Linklater (“Boyhood”) goes for laughs with Glenn Powell as a Houston cop who goes undercover as, yes, “Hit Man.”
One already controversial title, Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” a biopic about the bisexual conductor and “West Side Story” composer Leonard Bernstein, will obviously be missing its producer, co-writer, director and star due to the strike.
Venice remains a friendly home for two legendary – if notorious – filmmakers. Woody Allen, who is 87, and Roman Polanski, 90, both present world premieres. Allen’s “Coup de chance” is a French language thriller with English subtitles, while Polanski’s “The Palace” stars Mickey Rourke and the French icon Fanny Ardent in a satire set in Swiss luxury hotel on New Year’s Eve 1999. Polanski is banned from stepping foot in Italy due to his decades-long legal issues but Allen will be here.
While both films follow their Festival berths with commercial runs in Europe in September neither is slotted for an American release.
William Friedkin’s death in early August – he was 87 – means that two planned Venice events will proceed without his presence. “The Exorcist” is being given a 50th anniversary salute alongside the world premiere of what is now Friedkin’s final film, a new adaptation of the ‘50s stage and screen military courtroom drama “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” with Kiefer Sutherland and Jake Lacey (“The White Lotus”).
The festival ends Sept. 9 when the competition jury led by Damien Chazelle (“First Man,” “Babylon”) awards Gold Lions, the festival’s top prize, in several categories.