Reports from Italy are implying that there will be a total of SIX Italian films in competition at this year’s 80th Venice Film Festival. That’s a lot.
I usually expect, at most 4-5, but six? Does this mean that there are plenty of quality Italian films this year? Or is it a symptom of American films dropping out due to the SAG strike?
The Italian directors being tipped for a comp slot are Matteo Garrone, Pietro Castellito, Saverio Costanzo, Giorgio Diritti, Edoardo De Angelis and Stefano Sollima. The only big name there is Garrone, but I’m willing to give the other ones a shot.
I did a little experimenting and if we were to strip down the U.S/SAG affiliated films that have been tipped for Venice, and only include the ones that wouldn’t be, or barely, affected by the strike, then we’d get a competition lineup resembling something like this:
The Beast (Betrand Bonello)
El Conde (Pablo Larraín)
How Do You Live (Hayao Miyazaki)
The Palace (Roman Polanski)
Io Capitano (Matteo Garrone)
Dogman (Luc Besson)
Le Successeur (Xavier LeGrand)
Fingernails (Christos Nikou)
The Peasants (Dorota Kobiela)
Limonov (Kiril Serebrenikkov)
Commandante (Edoardo De Angelis)
The Theory of Everything (Tim Kroger)
Hors Saison (Stéphane Brizé)
Lubo (Giorgio Diritti)
Enea (Pietro Castellitto)
Finalmente L’Alba (Saverio Costanzo)
Adagio (Stefano Solima)
Yes, some of these might still have actors who are SAG-affiliated, but, since they are foreign-backed, I don’t see any reason for them not to make the trip to the Lido this year.
Depressing, right? Venice tends to bank a lot on glamorous Oscar-baiting Hollywood productions and this year’s strike would be a disastrous outcome for Venice head Alberto Barbera.
However, what this kind of lineup would also do is shine a light on films that might have been buried had this been a normal year at the Lido. I’m very curious to see what gets selected, the lineup is supposed to be revealed on July 25.