The 2024 Venice Film Festival is underway and the Hollywood glitterati has descended on the city's atmospheric alleyways and canals.
La Biennale, as it's officially known, builds to the reveal of the top prize, the coveted Golden Lion, which will be awarded on September 7th. Until then, here are selected highlights of the movies set to play to a rapt audience.
IN-COMPETITION FILMS
Joker: Folie a Deux (released October 4th)
Joaquin Phoenix won an Oscar for his intense portrayal of clown-turned-DC-supervillain Arthur Fleck. At the end of the first Joker film, Arthur translated all of his isolated rage into his newly symbolic status as the Joker, Gotham City's ultimate embodiment of 'turn that frown upside down'.
Director Todd Phillips reunites with Phoenix for the sequel, Joker: Folie a Deux. The title translates as 'a madness shared by two', and the newly incarcerated Arthur finds his Arkham Asylum soul mate in the form of fellow inmate Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga). Before long they're embarking on a swooning romance that apes the look and feel of classic Hollywood musicals, although we're forced to question how much of it is real and how much is imagined.
The sequel is described as a jukebox musical, further underlined by Gaga's presence. One can expect a visually bold and narratively experimental twist on the Joker/Harley Quinn origin story with Brendan Gleeson, Harry Lawtey, Zazie Beetz (returning from the first movie) and Steve Coogan offering starry support.
The Room Next Door (released October 25th)
Celebrated Spanish director Pedro Almodovar (All About My Mother; The Skin I Live In; Pain and Glory) makes his English-language filmmaking debut with this typically ravishing and sensual drama. Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton take the lead roles in this story of a conflicted mother and war correspondent who must reckon with the fallout from a previous relationship.
Both Moore and Swinton are famously mercurial performers, renowned for their bold choices in the likes of Far From Heaven (2002) and We Need to Talk About Kevin (2021). Almodovar is noted for his skills with pastiche, primary-coloured melodrama that's regularly underscored with a Hitchcokian sense of menace and tension. With all of these creatives on board, we can surely expect fireworks.
Queer (release date TBC)
Daniel Craig's post-James Bond renaissance continues as he collaborates with Challengers director Luca Guadagnino for this intense drama. Queer is adapted from the novel of the same name by the revered Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs and stars Craig as Burroughs' on-screen avatar, William Lee.
The movie is described as a romantic drama set in and around Mexico City, focusing on the disconsolate Lee's relationship with Eugene Allerton (played by The Hate U Give actor Drew Starkey). Guadagnino is well-versed in fashioning slow-burn chemistry between his actors, as demonstrated by the steamy, sweaty Zendaya-Josh O'Connor-Mike Faist love triangle in the acclaimed tennis drama Challengers. Can Queer match that film's critical plaudits and emerge as another hit for its director?
The Order (release date TBC)
Director Justin Kurzel knows how to hit hard, whether it's his gruelling, ripped-from-the-headlines serial killer movie Snowtown (2010) or his appreciably gritty take on Shakespeare's Macbeth starring Michael Fassbender (2015). The Australian helmer now tackles the inherently cinematic spectacle of the bank heist, adapting the 1989 non-fiction book The Silent Brotherhood by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt.
Jude Law plays the FBI agent who gets in deep with white supremacists while investigating a series of bank holdups that have been taking place throughout America's Pacific Northwest. Nicholas Hoult uncorks his darker side to play real-life supremacist leader Robert Jay Mathews.
Maria (release date TBC)
Angelina Jolie stars as the iconic opera diva Maria Callas and may be angling for her second Oscar (her first came in 1999 for the film Girl, Interrupted). Jolie pairs with acclaimed Chilean director Pablo Larrain whose anti-biopic dramas Jackie (2016), focusing on Jackie Kennedy, and Spencer (2021), focusing on Princess Diana, acted as acute critiques of media pressure and celebrity infamy.
It's not clear if Jolie will be using her own singing voice but based on her dramatic roles in the likes of A Mighty Heart (2007) and Changeling (2008), we can surely expect a transformative performance.
Babygirl (released January 10th, 2025)
Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson play characters locked in an illicit affair in this provocative-sounding thriller from Dutch actor-turned-director Halina Reijn. When Kidman's successful CEO begins a relationship with Dickinson's low-ranking intern, it unlocks a hornet's nest of recriminations.
OUT-OF-COMPETITION FILMS
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (released September 6th)
The juice is loose in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, director Tim Burton's long-awaited sequel to his classic 1988 horror-comedy. Michael Keaton returns as the maniacal, morbid but endlessly watchable 'bio-exorcist' Beetlejuice who is once again summoned from his undead resting place to confront Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), to whom he nearly got betrothed.
While Lydia seeks to protect her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) from Beetlejuice's mischievous influence, the title character comes under suspicion from afterlife investigator Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe) who is on the search for the undead Delores (Monica Belucci). Expect all manner of fan-pleasing elements from the return of Catherine O'Hara as Lydia's mother Delia Deetz to the stop-motion sandworms, the shrunken-head guy Bob to the sure-to-be-riotous score from Burton regular Danny Elfman.
Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2 (release date TBC)
Kevin Costner is regarded as a master of the sweeping, old-fashioned Western, having steered his directorial debut Dances with Wolves to multi-Oscar-winning success back in 1990. Costner's other achievements in this area include 1994's Wyatt Earp, 2003's Open Range, which he also directed, and the TV show Yellowstone.
In June, we were presented with Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter One, Costner's inaugural entry in his grandiose movie series. The movie explored the east to west movement of the American settlers in the wake of the Civil War, exploring the trials and tribulations as they experienced tensions and violence with the indigenous population. Costner is next set to bring us Part Two, which once again showcases a sprawling ensemble cast and a staggering sense of scale as we bear witness to the birth of contemporary America.
Wolfs (released September 20th)
Who remembers George Clooney and Brad Pitt's near-telepathic chemistry in the blockbusting Ocean's movies? Well, slick new comedy-thriller Wolves reunites these two impossibly handsome and charismatic A-listers, in which they play rival 'fixers' who are forced to work together after a job gone wrong.
Keep up to date with all of this year's Venice Film Festival entries. With an Unlimited membership, you can enjoy unlimited movies for less than the cost of two tickets per month. Plus, you get to enjoy 10% off snacks and drinks and lots more. Sign up via the link below.
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