Venice’s 2023 Out Of Competition titles include new films from Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, Woody Allen and Liliana Cavani, the latter of whom is receiving the festival’s career Golden Lion.
Aggro Dr1ft (US)
Dir. Harmony Korine
Venice veteran Korine returns to the festival 11 years after Spring Breakers was in Competition (his Julien Donkey-Boy screened in Cinema of the Present in 1999 and Gummo in Critics’ Week in 1997). Action film Aggro Dr1ft is his second collaboration with rapper Travis Scott after this year’s Circus Maximus. Shot entirely in infrared, the tale of a troubled assassin promises to be a trippy assault on the senses, and co-stars Spain’s Jordi Molla. Iconoclast and Edglrd produced.
Contact: CAA Media Finance
Amor (It-Lith)
Dir. Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri
This year’s skein of Rome-themed films at the festival continues with this personal odyssey by a filmmaker whose mother died by suicide in the Tiber. Set in what experienced documentary director Eleuteri Serpieri calls “a dream of a city that looks like Rome, but is not Rome”, this hybrid drama-doc sets out to probe the way her mother and the city have become fused in her mind. Backed by Rai Cinema, Amor is a co-production between Italian documentary specialist Stelfilm International (which is also selling) and Lithuanian banner Era Film.
Contact: Stelfilm International
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (US)
Dir. William Friedkin
Honoured with a career Golden Lion at Venice a decade ago, Oscar winner Friedkin, who died in early August, updated Herman Wouk’s 1950s novel and play The Caine Mutiny as a legal drama involving a naval officer on trial for seizing command of a ship in the Persian Gulf. Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Clarke star for the filmmaker — who also won Venice’s Golden Mouse in 2011 for his independent crime drama Killer Joe — in a project made for US premium television brand Showtime and sister company Paramount Global Content Distribution.
Contact: Paramount Global Content Distribution
Coup De Chance (Fr-UK)
Dir. Woody Allen
Already setting off a media firestorm ahead of the festival, Coup De Chance marks the inexhaustible 87-year-old director’s 50th film and his first in the French language. The starry local cast includes Valérie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud and Elsa Zylberstein, alongside ubiquitous up-and-comers Lou de Laâge and Niels Schneider. The contemporary romantic thriller, set in Paris and the countryside, is the story of two young people whose passion leads to marital infidelity and ultimately crime. Allen continues his late career collaboration with cinematographer Vittorio Storaro — this is their fifth film together since 2016’s Café Society.
Contact: Sofia Neves, WestEnd Films
Daaaaaali! (Fr)
Dir. Quentin Dupieux
France’s master of the absurd meets Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali in this offbeat biopic featuring top French acting talent including Anaïs Demoustier, Edouard Baer, Jonathan Cohen, Gilles Lellouche, Pio Marmaï, Didier Flamand and Romain Duris. Daaaaaali! is about a French journalist who meets the Spanish artist repeatedly for a documentary film project, but never manages to start shooting. It is the 13th feature from the prolific Dupieux, who slipped a surprise 12th feature titled Yannick into French theatres in August. He returns to the Venice line-up following 2020 comedy Mandibles, which also screened out of competition. The unpredictable filmmaker has reinvented French genre fare, so this off-kilter, star-powered title could cause a stir.
Contact: Kinology
Enzo Jannacci Vengo Anch’io (It)
Dir. Giorgio Verdelli
Verdelli continues to mine the music documentary seam he has been exploring since 2017 with this film about eclectic singer, rock ’n’ roll musician, stand-up comedian and cardiologist Enzo Jannacci, whose 1968 hit ‘Vengo Anch’io’ (translation: ‘I’m Coming Too’) is referenced in the title. As with Verdelli’s two previous music docs — about pianist and composer Ezio Bosso and crooner Paolo Conte — the film is produced by the director’s own Sudovest Produzioni alongside Indigo Film, the company behind Paolo Sorrentino’s films including 2018’s Loro.
Contact: Indigo Film
Hit Man (US)
Dir. Richard Linklater
Indie stalwart Linklater returns to his home turf with an action comedy based on an article from magazine Texas Monthly, about a Houston cop working undercover as a hired killer who breaks protocol to help a woman fleeing her abusive boyfriend. Linklater — whose Waking Life played in Venice’s Competition in 2001 — wrote the script with lead actor Glen Powell, while backing came from AGC Studios, ShivHans Pictures and Monarch Media.
Contact: AGC International
Hollywoodgate (Ger-US)
Dir. Ibrahim Nash’at
Egyptian docs filmmaker Nash’at, who is based in Germany, spent a year in Afghanistan chronicling the Taliban’s transformation from an extremist militia into a military regime after the withdrawal of US and NATO forces in 2021. The film is produced by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Talal Derki, and received the first Whickers-Close Up Bursary last year. It is a Rolling Narratives production in association with Jouzour Film Production, Cottage M and RaeFilm Studios.
Contact Rena Ronson, United Talent Agency ronsonr@unitedtalent.com
I Know Your Soul (Bos & Her)
Dirs. Alen Drljevic, Nermin Hamzagic
I Know Your Soul’s series showrunners Jasmila Zbanic and Damic Ibrahimovic saw their first film Grbavica win the Berlinale’s Golden Bear in 2006. More recently the pair’s war drama Quo Vadis, Aida? played in Competition at Venice in 2020 and was nominated for an Oscar. Filmed in and around Sarajevo, the six-episode I Know Your Soul kicks off with a minor’s death by suicide, which triggers an avalanche of events in the private life of a prosecutor. Co‑director Drljevic’s Men Don’t Cry won the jury prize at Karlovy Vary in 2017, while Hamzagic’s Full Moon was shortlisted at the 2020 European Film Awards. Produced by Zbanic and Ibrahimovic’s company Deblokada and BH Content Lab, the series will air on Bosnian streamer Moja TV, owned by BH Telecom, in October. I Know Your Soul is the first series from Bosnia & Herzegovina to play at a major festival.
Contact: Beta Film
In Front Of Guernica (It)
Dirs. Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi
Commissioned by Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofia art centre, where it previewed earlier this year, this experimental cinema work by a veteran Italian avant-garde filmmaking duo continues their exploration of 20th-century violence. Built from a series of archival images of Spaniards at war in the years up to and including the Spanish Civil War, the film was conceived while Lucchi was still alive but completed by Gianikian, her partner in work and life, after her death in 2018.
Contact: Museo Reina Sofia
Making Of (Fr)
Dir. Cédric Kahn
Actor/writer/director Kahn is a regular on the festival and awards circuit, both in front of and behind the camera, and returns with his 12th feature, fresh from The Goldman Case opening Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes earlier this year. The meta title follows a well-known French filmmaker shooting his next project, who faces a crew on strike, a demanding producer, a personal life that is falling apart and an egocentric lead actor. Armed with its own A-list local cast including Denis Podalydes, Jonathan Cohen and Emmanuelle Bercot, the film is produced by powerhouse French producer Olivier Delbosc’s Curiosa Films.
Contact: Elle Driver
Menus Plaisirs — Les Troisgros (Fr-US)
Dir. Frederick Wiseman
At 93 years old, veteran US filmmaker Wiseman returns to Venice just a year after his second narrative feature A Couple screened in Competition; Menus Plaisirs — Les Troisgros marks his return to the documentary form. The four-hour culinary film chronicles the daily lives of the family behind France’s Michelin-starred restaurant La Maison Troisgros, bringing viewers on a tour of everything from local markets and mongers to the kitchen and the dining scene, as one generation of restaurateurs passes the torch to the next.
Contact: Estelle Dearaujo, The Party Film Sales
Of Money And Blood (Fr-Belg)
Dirs. Xavier Giannoli, Frédéric Planchon
This 12-part narrative TV series and Canal+ Creation Originale is based on journalist Fabrice Arfi’s book about the true story of the French carbon tax scam of 2009, one of the biggest financial swindles of all time. It marks the first-ever series for award-winning filmmaker Giannoli, who co-writes with Jean-Baptiste Delafon and co-directs alongside Planchon. It stars Vincent Lindon, Niels Schneider, Ramzy Bedia, Judith Chemla and Olga Kurylenko and is produced by Olivier Delbosc for Curiosa Films. Venice will screen all 12 episodes and the series is scheduled for an October launch in France.
Contact: Delphine Huchet, Canal+; Malo Evene, Canal+
On The Pulse (Fr-Belg)
Dir. Alix Delaporte
Delaporte’s third feature is set in the world of news reporters and stars Roschdy Zem, Alice Isaaz, Vincent Elbaz and Ludivine Sagnier. It focuses on a young journalist with no formal training who must prove herself and learn the codes of the profession. Delaporte returns to Venice after 2014’s Competition title The Last Hammer Blow and her debut feature 2010 drama Angel & Tony, which premiered in Venice’s Critics’ Week and went on to win two César awards.
Contact: Pyramide International
The Order Of Time (It-Belg)
Dir. Liliana Cavani
Recipient of this year’s career Golden Lion, veteran Italian cineaste Cavani is back at the age of 90, two decades after her last fiction feature Ripley’s Game. Never one to shirk a challenge, she has adapted a book about relativity and space-time by Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli, folding in a story about friends at a birthday party weekend that is disrupted by the end of the world. Cavani and experienced screenwriter Paolo Costella co-write with Rovelli on board as scientific consultant, in a film co-produced by Indiana, Rai Cinema, Belgian co-pro specialists GapBusters and Vision Distribution, which releases the film in Italy and is also handling sales.
Contact: Vision Distribution
The Palace (It-Switz-Pol-Fr)
Dir. Roman Polanski
Having premiered his last film An Officer And A Spy at Venice in 2019, Polanski returns with black comedy The Palace about a New Years’ Eve event in 1999 for the uber-rich at a Swiss hotel that takes an unexpected turn. Polanski co-wrote the film’s script with EO director Jerzy Skolimowski and Ewa Piaskowska. Its ensemble cast includes Oliver Masucci, Fanny Ardant, John Cleese, Bronwyn James and Mickey Rourke. Italy’s Rai Cinema, the main backer of The Palace, has set a September 28 local release date via its 01 Distribution division. Luca Barbareschi produces through Italy’s Eliseo Entertainment.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
The Penitent (It)
Dir. Luca Barbareschi
Prolific actor, director, producer and TV personality Barbareschi — who also served for five years as an Italian member of parliament — is in Venice in a dual role, as co-producer of Roman Polanski’s The Palace, and as producer/director/lead actor of this drama, which David Mamet has adapted from his own 2017 stageplay. Centring on a psychoanalyst whose reputation and career are derailed by a possibly deliberate media misprint, the English-language title is co-produced by Barbareschi’s Eliseo Entertainment and Rai Cinema.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus (Jap)
Dir. Neo Sora
This concert film chronicles the final performance of Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Oscar-winning Japanese composer of The Last Emperor and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, who died in March aged 71. Featuring just Sakamoto and his piano, it was shot without an audience in December 2022 during a performance that was streamed to around 30 countries across the world. The film is directed by his son Sora, who is known for shorts such as The Chicken, which premiered at Locarno in 2020, and Sugar Glass Bottle. Sakamoto was a jury member at the 70th edition of Venice in 2013.
Contact: Film Constellation
Snow Leopard (China)
Dir. Pema Tseden
The final film by the late Tibetan director was shot during the pandemic in his home province Qinghai, centring on an argument between a father and son after a snow leopard breaks into a sheep pen and kills nine rams. The father insists on releasing the snow leopard, but his son wants to kill it. The Tibetan-language drama is produced by Mani Stone Pictures and was completed before Pema Tseden died in May. His films Tharlo (2015), Jinpa (2018, winner of best screenplay) and Balloon (2019) all premiered at Venice.
Contact: Rediance
Society Of The Snow (Sp-Uru-Chile)
Dir. JA Bayona
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom director Bayona closes Venice with this Spanish-language film based on the infamous 1972 crash of a flight carrying a Uruguayan rugby team over the Andes. Society Of The Snow is the Spanish director’s fifth film and his first to be shot in Spanish for 16 years, since his 2007 debut The Orphanage. It is his first film to screen at Venice. The cast is led by Enzo Vogrincic, Matias Recalt, Agustin Pardella, Esteban Kukuriczka and Tomas Wolf. Netflix has global rights.
Contact: Netflix
The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar (US)
Dir. Wes Anderson
In only his second visit to Venice, after The Darjeeling Limited which played in Competition in 2007, Anderson brings this 37-minute film based on a short story by Roald Dahl about a man who learns to see through objects and predict the future. It is Anderson’s second adaptation of a piece by the writer after 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. As usual, Anderson has assembled an all-star cast including Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, Rupert Friend and Richard Ayoade. Netflix, which bought the Roald Dahl Story Company in 2021, will stream the film after the premiere.
Contact: Netflix
Profiles by Ben Dalton, Tim Dams, Patricia Dobson, John Hazelton, Rebecca Leffler, Lee Marshall, Emilio Mayorga, Wendy Mitchell, Michael Rosser, Mona Tabbara, Silvia Wong.
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