By: Haley Bosselman By: Haley Bosselman | August 30, 2021 | Movies,
Zendaya stars in Dune, premiering at Venice Film Festival.
The 78th Venice International Film Festival runs Sept. 1 to Sept. 11 and includes a lineup of 37 virtual reality projects, 18 short films, two medium-length films, a television series and 76 features. Though the festival aims to promote international cinema, the biggest buzz will come from the year’s most highly anticipated Hollywood movies.
Hardly any other film has been in the news over the last year morethan Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction epic, Dune. With an all-star cast and score from Hans Zimmer, the Warner Bros. project has continued to push its release date for nearly a year, dragging along fans of the 1965 novel by Frank Hebert. It will finally reach audieces with its Venice debut.
Venice will also premiere Princess Diana tale, Spencer, with Kristen Stewart in the titular role. Should it find success, the Pablo Larraín feature will likely catapult the film into awards season conversation as it makes its way to its Nov. 5 theatrical release. In the meantime, fanfare will have to pivot to another beloved actress: Jamie Lee Curtis. Halloween Kills will reach audiences far sooner, hitting theaters with another Michael Myers tale on Oct. 15. What’s more, Curits will be awarded during the festival with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in honor of her extraordinary four-decade career, which began with none other than 1978’s Halloween.
“Italian Cinema has always honored and heralded the genre that gave me my career, so I couldn’t be more proud and happy to accept this award from the Venice International Film Festival on behalf of Laurie [Strode] and all the courageous heroines of the world who stand tall in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and refuse to yield,” Curtis said of being presented with the award.
Read below for more about the buzziest titles coming to this year’s Venice International Film Festival.
A love letter to Central London, director Edgar Wright’s psychological thriller follows Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer who is able to enter the 1960s where she meets the dazzling Sandie. However, all the glamour isn’t exactly what it seems and dreams of the past devolve into something far more chilling. It stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp, Diana Rigg, Rita Tushingham, Michael Ajao and Synnøve Karlsen.
Based on the novel of the same name by Eric Jager, Ridley Scott knew he had to direct the adaptation when he learned Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Nicole Holofcener were writing the script. Set in 14th century France, the historical epic is a tale of betrayal and vengeance about the country’s last sanctioned fuel between two friends who became bitter rivals. The cast includes Damon, Affleck, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Harriet Walter, Marton Csokas and Nathaniel Parker.
The sprawling 2-hour-and-35-minute film first enticed widespread excitement with its cast announcement— a lineup that features Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Sharon Duncan Brewster, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, Chang Chen, David Dastmalchian, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem. On the screen, these actors will bring to life a mythic hero’s journey about a gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding.
With her fantasy-adventure film, director and screenwriter Ana Lily Amirpour wanted to explore the meaning of personal freedom in a chaotic society. The result is a story about a girl with unusual powers who escapes from a mental asylum and tries to live on her own in New Orleans. It stars Jeon Jong-seo, Kate Hudson, Craig Robinson, Evan Whitten and Ed Skrein.
Not a standard biopic, this upside-down fairytale (as described by director Pablo Larraín) is a reimagining of what may have happened during the Christmas season that Princess Diana decided to end her marriage to Prince Charles. Rumors of affairs and divoce swirl as the Royal Family partake in drinking, shooting and hunting—standard festivities of the holiday season. But as Diana chooses to stay true to herself, she knows this year will be a whole lot different. The cast includes Kristen Stewart, Timothy Spall, Jack Farthing, Sean Harris and Sally Hawkins.
Director David Gordon-Green ensures that Halloween Kills is unlike any of the series’ previous films. No quietness across the 105-minute runtime, it is full of anxiety, stabbing, burning and destruction— the most action Gordon-Green has ever done in a film. Picking up on the night of Michael Myers’ Halloween return, Laurie Strode, daughter Karen and granddaughter Allyson come to realize their tormentor escaped the burning basement. Once and for all, evil must die and Laurie inspires a vigilante mob formed by other survivor’s of Michael’s rampage to hunt him down. Alongside Curtis, the cast includes Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Thomas Mann and Anthony Michael Hall.
Prestige television has officially made its way into a film festival. Adapted from Ingmar Bergman’s Swedish miniseries, Scenes from a Marriage examines love, hatred, desire, monogamy, marriage and divorce through one contemporary American couple’s relationship. It stars Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac.
See also: Watch Kristen Stewart in the First Trailer for 'Spencer'
Photography by: Owen Kolasinski/BFA.com