Venice Film Festival: Top 5 contenders for coveted Golden Lion award
Director Pablo Larrain, from left, Angelina Jolie, and Alba Rohrwacher pose for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'Maria' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. Picture: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP
This week the venerable Venice International Film Festival - the world’s oldest - will be back to its unhindered best. The motion picture palaces that line the Lido’s shores will play host to some of the most exciting titles 2024 has to offer.
The Biennale has garnered a reputation in recent years for being a launchpad for Oscar-winning films with the likes of Joker, Poor Things, Roma and The Shape of Water all winning the Golden Lion and continuing that success at the Academy Awards in their respective years.
With 21 films in competition for ‘Venezia 81’, which of them are serious contenders for the festival’s top prize?
In no particular order, here are the top five contenders:
Starring Adrien Brody - in, apparently, career best form - as Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor Laszlo Toth, The Brutalist spans three decade
s of the protagonist’s life as he moves from his homeland to the United States to experience the ‘American Dream’ with his wife, played by Felicity Jones.
Toth’s life is ultimately changed, for better or for worse, by the introduction of a mysterious client.
Folk with evening plans or short attention spans, beware, this one runs just over three-and-a-half hours in length. At least director Brady Corbet has enough empathy to place a 15-minute intermission at the half-way point. We salute you sir.
Early reactions have touted The Brutalist as one of the hot favourites for the Golden Lion with festival chief Alberto Barbera being one such advocate. Keep an eye.
In what will be his first ever English language feature, Almodovar’s latest project hits the historic Sala Grande with none other than Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore - two of the industry’s most treasured actresses - to boast as its leading ladies.
Based on the bestselling novel What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez, the plot revolves around the enigmatic relationship between Martha, a war correspondent, and author Ingrid, a figure from Martha’s past. At the very least, expect a classy, simmering two-hander to mull over from one of cinema’s contemporary masters.
Almodovar has yet to get his hands on the Golden Lion despite a couple of worthy efforts. Third time’s the charm, maybe.
Luca Guadagnino is back on the Lido after the disappointment of last year when, due to the disruptive SAG-AFTRA strikes, Challengers was pulled from the festival programme.
The Italian reunites with Challengers screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes for his latest undertaking; an adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ 1985 novel which sees Daniel Craig (far removed from his post as Britain’s favourite secret agent) play Burroughs stand-in William Lee, an outcast American expat who flees to Mexico City in the 1940’s. While in the capital, Lee becomes enamoured by a troubled American Navy serviceman Allerton played by relative newcomer Drew Starkey.
One of the many things Guadagnino is particularly adept at as a storyteller and filmmaker is portraying sizzling, sensual romance on screen. Think the ecstatic, youthful fervour of Call Me By Your Name, or the bloodsoaked beauty of Bones & All. Let’s not forget the sunburnt sexual jealousy of A Bigger Splash. It’s his leitmotif. It would be safe to assume Queer will be no different.
Understandably, Queer will be one of the hottest tickets in town, and with Guadagnino being one of the festival’s most beloved guests there may be a public outcry if he doesn’t finally pick up the big prize.
Walter Salles was on a hot streak around the turn of the century with two Oscar nominated films - The Motorcycle Diaries and Central Station - on his resumé. However, the Brazilian hasn’t directed a feature film since On The Road in 2012.
Salles returns to the land of the filmgoing living with I’m Still Here (or Ainda Estou Aqui) which takes place in his native Brazil and covers the disappearance of former leftist congressman Rubens Paiva, and his family’s coping with that loss. The film reunites Salles with Central Station star and Oscar nominee Fernanda Montenegro, and her daughter Fernanda Torres, who both play versions of Eunice at different stages of her life.
Everybody loves a comeback story. Consequently, a positive return for Salles could conclude in him waltzing up the steps of the Sala Grande stage to accept the festival’s most coveted prize on the 7th of September. Will I’m Still Here be worth the 12 year wait? Only time will tell.
Angelina Jolie hasn’t graced our screens for nearly three years but she’s back and better than ever if early reactions to her performance as famous Argentinian opera singer María Callas are anything to go off.
Maria completes a trilogy of unconventional biopics about much documented and troubled women of the 20th century from Chilean director Pablo Larraín, after Jackie and Spencer, which depict tumultuous periods in the lives of Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana of Wales, respectively.
Larraín is a regular at the Biennale, having had five of his films compete for the Golden Lion over the years. Much like Almodovar, however, it seems about time Larraín was awarded for his consistent artistic merit. Maria may finally be his moment in the Venetian spotlight.
