Many Hollywood stars will attend this year's Venice Film Festival, which will open on Wednesday, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA . Last year, the edition of one of the most anticipated cinema events was weaker due to the strikes of the screenwriters and actors in Hollywood.
The event will last 11 days. The Venice Film Festival presents some of Hollywood's best films, which later traditionally manage to collect numerous “Oscar” awards. In the last three years alone, the event in Italy has presented films that received 77 nominations for the prestigious award of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and won 14 statuettes respectively.
Top stars expected in Venice this year include Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Lady Gaga, Joaquin Phoenix, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, William Dafoe, Tilda Swinton and Adrien Brody.
„Everyone is really very anxious to get back to Venice after the long strike last year. So, in my opinion, we will have the most visited red carpet ever,”, the festival's creative director Alberto Barbera told Reuters.
The Hollywood actors' strike in 2023 forced many movie stars to skip the gathering, and unions encouraged members not to promote their projects to put pressure on major studios.
This year, some of the celebrities even paid for the event themselves to make sure they were in Lido Island. There, fans flock to watch their favorites arrive for the glamorous premieres.
Among the films competing for the Golden Lion prize are “Joker: Madness for Two” by Todd Phillips starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, “Maria“ by Pablo Laraine, in which Jolie plays the opera diva Maria Callas, and Luca Guadagnino's Queer with Daniel Craig, who defies the James Bond stereotype and takes on the role of an American gay man.
The festival opens with Tim Burton's “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice,”, a sequel to the 1988 comedy-horror that stars some of the original cast, including Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, and new actors such as Jenna Ortega, Monica Bellucci and William Dafoe.
The film is presented outside the competition program, along with “Lone wolves” by John Watts, starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney, who are traditionally at the Venice Film Festival.
Venice prides itself on attracting both blockbusters and auteur films, established names and fresh faces, with this year more than half of the films in the competition program being the work of directors new to the festival.
„We have, of course, many great directors, some of the most anticipated films of the new season, but also many discoveries, new talents from all over the world. So it's really a mirror of modern cinema," Barbera said.
A total of 21 films will be screened in the competition program, including Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's first English-language film, The Room Next Door, starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, about the deteriorating relationship between a mother and daughter.
„I would be surprised if some of the films don't reappear at the Oscars, said Barbera, who has made a selection from about 4,000 candidates.