74th Venice International Film Festival Lineup

Today, August 7, 2017 organizers announce three (3) more films in the selection, one is out of competition, another is a special screening and the last one is a documentary in Venezia Classici section.

The two films are by well-known directors, first is the much-awaited return of John Woo to the crime thriller which made him famous and second, outstanding filmmaker Andrea Segre latest opus which hope has his peculiar storytelling style even when story is about immigration to Europe.

Just noticed la Biennale di Venezia changed its website, so have to find where is everything as not being able to find where is the Special Screenings or maybe the movie announced today is the only one (probably not).  While learn about the site will write the Andrea Segre film data in the following paragraph.

Special Screening: L'ordine delle Cose, Andrea Segre, Italy

To check the news at official site go here

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1/27/17
The complete line-up of the 2017 Biennale was announced during a press conference that took place on Thursday, July 27th in Rome.  The conference was streamed live and to my delight was able to watch the end with the live announcement of the 21 films in the main competition.

Believe must of us were expecting a very strong lineup as already knew the films that didn't make it to the other two main competitive festivals and well, the lineup is great but is not as strong as I was hoping for.  Still will not deny that I'm very pleased to find in the competition the latest films by Aronofsky and Kechiche.  Talking about Kechiche, his film is the first installment in a diptych -that could become triptych- based on Francois Bégaudeau’s book La blessure, la vraie, a saga centering around a screenwriter who returns to his hometown.

Another film that could be interesting is the debut film by Xavier Legrand as he's the director of the 2013 short film that went on to collect an Oscar nomination.  I loved Lebanon and now Samuel Maoz is in competition with Foxtrot which becomes must-be-seen for me.

Most unexpected is to find Lucrecia Martel's Zuma and Anne Fontaine's Marvin not in competition but relegated to Out of Competition the first and the Orizzonti section -the second-.  Really wonder how some American movies in competition could be "better" than films by Martel or Fontaine; so, there was room in the competition, just take 2 films and voila! two extraordinary female filmmakers would have been in the competition that -by the way- has only one female director.  Sigh.

On the not-so-good side, there are too many American films for my taste but know the festival is trying to be the harbinger to the Oscars and seems that last year its effort were successful as not only the festival opening film "almost" won the top Oscar (LOL) but also there were other films with nominations.

No doubt that the best news for many non-cinephiles is Jennifer Lawrence attending the festival, which obviously will give fest lots and lots of social media buzz and press coverage. Yes, I'm please with her doing all the crazy antics she does.

The festival will run from August 30 to September 9 and will update post with additions as soon as they're announced, if applicable.  Was waiting for the official press release but seems this year organizers will take their time releasing more data about the festival.  As of this moment, Saturday,  July 29th, the post is updated with all films in all sections, including the ones that have been added yesterday; so, maybe, no more updates will come, but will be checking constantly.

There are twenty-one (21) films in the competition, seven (7) are USA productions or co productions which makes it the leading country, followed by  France with 6, Italy 5, UK and Germany with 2 each, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, Lebanon and Israel with 1 each.

Have finished reading/learning about each of the 21 films in competition and from the ones I knew nothing, the biggest surprise undoubtedly is Guillermo del Toro's movie as from trailer seems will be quite entertaining while being dramatic, yes, has become must-be-seen for me.  From the little info available for some films is not easy to guess if any will qualify for the Queer Lion, which is unusual as always there is something in synopsis that gives it away.   Maybe Queer Lion contenders will come from other sections but soon enough we will learn the lineup.

Venezia 74 Competition
International competition of feature films, presented as world premieres

Opening Film: Downsizing, Alexander Payne, USA
Ammore e Malavita, Manetti Brothers, Italy
Ex Libris.  The New York Public Library, Frederick Wiseman, USA (documentary)
First Reformed, Paul Schrader, USA
Foxtrot, Samuel Maoz, Israel, Germany, France and Switzerland
Hannah, Andrea Pallaoro, Italy, Belgium and France
Human Flow, Ai Weiwei, Germany and USA (documentary)
嘉年華 Jia nian hua (Angels Wear White), Vivian Qu, China and France
Jusqu'à la garde, Xavier Legrand, France
La Villa (The House by the Sea), Robert Guédiguian, France
L'Insulte (The Insult), Ziad Doueiri, France and Lebanon
Lean on Pete, Andrew Haigh, UK
Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno, Abdellatif Kechiche, France and Italy
mother!, Daren Aronofsky, USA
三度目の殺人 Sandome no Satsujin (The Third Murder), Koreeda Hirokazu, Japan
Suburbicon, George Clooney, USA
Sweet Country, Warwick Thornton, Australia
The Leisure Seeker, Paolo Virzì, Italy
The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro, USA
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Martin McDonagh, UK
Una Famiglia, Sebastiano Riso, Italy

Jury
President: Annette Bening, actress, USA
Ildikó Enyedi, director and screenwriter, Hungary
Michel Franco, director, producer and screenwriter, Mexico
Rebecca Hall, actress, UK
Anna Mouglalis, actress, France
David Stratton, film critic, UK and Australia
Jasmine Trinca, actress, Italy
Edgar Wright, director and screenwriter, UK
Yonfan, director, producer and screenwriter



Out of Competition
Important works by directors already established in previous editions of the Festival

Feature Films
アウトレイジ 最終章 Autoreiji Saishusho (Outrage Coda), Takeshi Kitano, Japan
Brawl in Cell Block 99, S. Craig Zahler, USA
Il Colore Nascosto delle Cose, Silvio Soldini, Italy and Switzerland
La mélodie, Rachid Hami, France
Le Fidèle (Racer and the Jailbird), Michaël R. Roskam, Belgium, France and Netherlands
Loving Pablo, Fernando León de Aranoa, Spain and Bulgaria
Our Souls at Night, Ritesh Batra, USA
The Private Life of a Modern Woman, James Toback, USA
Victoria & Abdul, Stephen Frears, UK
Zama, Lucercia Martel, Argentina and Brazil
追捕 Zhuibu (Manhunt), John Woo, China and Hong Kong

Documentaries
Cuba and the Cameraman, Jon Alpert, USA
Diva!, Francesco Patierno, Italy 
Happy Winter, Giovanni Totaro, Italy
Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond. The Story of Jim Carrey, Andy Kaufman and Tony Clifton, Chris Smith, USA and Canada
My Generation, David Batty, UK
Piazza Vittorio, Abel Ferrara, Italy
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda, Stephen Nomura Schible, USA
The Devil and Father Amorth, William Friedkin, USA 
This is Congo, Daniel McCabe, Congo

TV Series
Wormwood, Errol Morris, USA (6 episodes)

Special Events
Casa d'Altri, Gianni Amelio, Italy, 16'
Il Signor Rotpeter, Antonietta de Lillo, Italy, 37'
Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, Jerry Kramer, USA, 45'
Michael Jackson's Thriller 3D, John Landis, USA, 14'



Orizzonti
A competition dedicated to films that represent the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema.

Feature Films
بدون تاریخ بدون امضاء Bedoune Tarikh, Bedoune Emza (No Date, No Signature), Vahid Jalilvand, Iran
Brutti e Cattivi (Ugly Nasty People), Cosimo Gomez, Italy and France
Caniba, Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel, France
Espèces menacées, Gilles Bourdos, France and Belgium
Gatta Cenerentola, Alessandro Rak, Ivan Cappiello, Marion Guarnieri and Dario Sansone,  Italy (animation)
Ha Ben Dod (The Cousin), Tzahi Grad, Israel
Ha'Edut (The Testament), Amichai Greenberg, Israel and Austria
Invisible, Pablo Giorgelli, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Germany
Krieg, Rick Ostermann, Germany
La Nuit ou J'ai Nage (The Night I Swam), Damien Manivel and Igarashi Kohei, France and Japan'
La Vita in Comune, Edoardo Winspeare, Italy
Les Bienheureux, Sofia Djama, France and Belgium
Los Versos del Olvido, Alireza Khatami, France, Germany, Netherlands and Chile
Marvin, Anne Fontaine, France
الإختفاء Napadid Shodan (Disappearance), Ali Asgari, Iran and Qatar
Nico, 1988, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Italy and Belgium
The Rape of Recy Taylor, Nancy Buirski, USA
Undir trénu (Under the Tree), Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, Iceland, Denmark, Poland and Germany
West of Sunshine, Jason Raftopoulos, Australia

Short Films
8th Continent, Pavlos Iordanopoulos, Greece, 11'
Apia, Myrsini Aristidou, Cyprus and France, 13'
Astrometal, Efthimis Kosemund Sanidis, Greece, 15'
Awasarn Sound Man (Death of the Sound Man), Sorayos Prapapan, Thailand and Myanmar, 16'
By The Pool, Laurynas Bareiša, Lithuania, 16'
Gros Chagrin, Céline Devaux, France, 15' (animation)
Himinn Opinn, Gabriel Sanson and Clyde Gates, Belgium, 19'
Lagi Senang Jaga Sekandang Lembu (It's Easier to Raise Cattle), Amanda Nell Eu, Malaysia, 18'
L'Ombra della Sposa, Alessandra Pescetta, Italy, 11'
Meninas Formicida, João Paulo Miranda Maria, France and Brasil, 12'
Mon Amour, Mon Ami, Adriano Valerio, Italy, 15'
The Knife Salesman, Michael Leonard and Jamie Helmer, Australia, 10' 
Tierra Mojada, Juan Sebastián Mesa Bedoya, Colombia, 17'

Out of Competition Short Films
Futuro Prossimo, Salvatore Mereu, Italy, 18'

Jury
President: Gianni Amelio, director, Italy
Rakhshan Banietemad, director, Iran
Ami Canaan Mann, director, USA
Mark Cousins, director, screenwriter and curator, Ireland
Andrés Duprat, screenwriter and artistic curator, Argentina
Fien Troch, director and screenwriter, Belgium
Rebecca Zlotowski, director and screenwriter, France

Luigi De Laurentis for a Debut Film - Lion of the Future Jury
President: Benoît Jacquot, director and screenwriter, France
Geoff Andrew, author and film programmer, UK
Albert Lee, producer, Hong Kong
Greta Scarano, actress, Italy
Yorgos Zois, director, Greece

Venice Virtual Reality
Competitive section of VR films, with a section of out-of-competition VR films

Alice, The Virtual Reality Play, Mathias Chelebourg, France, 20'
Arden's Wake Expanded, Eugene Yk Chung, USA, 16'
Chuang (In The Pictures), Qing Shao, China, 5' (animation)
Dispatch, Edward Robles, USA and UK, 6'
Dongducheon (Bloodless), Gina Kim, South Korea and USA, 12'
Draw Me Close, Jordan Tannahill, Canada and UK, 15'
Free Whale, Zhang Peibin, China, 7' (animation)
Gomorra VR. We Own the Streets, Enrico Rosati, Italia, 14'
Greenland Melting, Nonny de la Peña, USA, 11'
Hver Sin Stilhed (Separate Silences), Denmark, 17'
I Saw The Future, François Vautier, France, 5'
Jia Zai Lanre Si (The Deserted), Tsai Ming-Liang, Taiwan, 55'
La Camera Insabbiata, Laurie Anderson and Huang Hsin-Chien, USA, 20' (animation)
Melita, Nicolás Alcalá, USA, 24'
My Name is Peter Stillman, Lysander Ashton and Leo Warner, UK, 6' (animation)
Nefertiti, Richard Mills and Kim-Leigh Pontin, UK, 15' (animation)
Nothing Happens, Uri Kranot and Michelle Kranot, Denmark and France, 14' (animation)
Proxima, Mathieu Pradat, France, 9'
Shi Meng Lao Ren (The Dream Collector), Mi Li, China, 11' (animation)
Snatch VR Heist Experience, Rafael Pavón and Nicolás Alcalá, USA, 5'
The Argos File, Josema Roig, USA, 4'
The Last Goodbye, Gabo Adora, USA, 20'

Out of Competition
Alteration, Jérôme Blanquet, France, 16'
Chromatica, Flavio Costa, Italy, 17'
Dear Angelica, Saschka Unseld, USA, 13' (animation)
Denoise (Beautiful Things), Giorgio Ferrero, Italy, 12'
Mule, Guy Shemerdine, USA, 6'
Miyubi, Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël, Canada, 40'
Naive New Beaters "Heal Tomorrow", Romain Chassaing, UK, 4'
On/Off, Camille Duvelleroy and Isabelle Foucrier, France, 10'
Sens. Part 1, Charles Ayats and Marc-Antoine Mathieu, France, 16'

Jury
John Landis, director, USA
Céline Sciamma, director and screenwriter, France
Ricky Tognazzi, director and actor, Italy

Venezia Classici
A selection of restored classic films and documentaries on cinema.  Outstanding selection with films by Antonioni, Bertolucci, Chabrol, Godard, Forman, Ozu, Mizoguchi and many more.  Check films at official site here.

Jury of Cinema History Students
Chair: Giuseppe Piccioni, director, Italy

Cinema nel Giardino
Films, talks and visions with interesting films and one TV series from Italy.  Check all films here.

Videos