Venice Film-Festival: Last News

Italian producer Lorenzo Mieli gave a spirited and often humorous rundown of his career as a producer working with directors such as Luca Guadagnino and Paolo Sorrentino during a keynote talk at the London Film Festival Monday.

Alex Ritman The Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight sidebar competition has revealed the poster for its upcoming 2025 edition, featuring a painting by one of cinema’s boundary-obliterating cult heroes. From “Spring Breakers” director Harmony Korine, the painting features two blurry faces in red and yellow, which Korine introduced as “Twitchys” “The characters in the painting are called Twitchys,” he said in a quote on the competition’s social media pages.

Isabelle Huppert, the Oscar-nominated star of “Elle,” spoke candidly about her career choices and made the audience laugh with her self-depreciating humor at a masterclass held at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon. The French actor, who is also being honored with the fest’s lifetime achievement Lumière prize, revealed that she had seen very few movies when she started acting some 50 years ago. But that didn’t prevent her from working with some of Europe’s most talented filmmakers, including Claude Chabrol, Michael Haneke and Paul Verhoeven.

Indie filmmaker John Swab’s action thriller King Ivory, a multi-faceted dive into the U.S. fentanyl crisis that weaves together storylines from various angles of the war on drugs, had its world premiere in the Horizons Extra strand at the Venice Film Festival this week. Much of the main cast was on hand to reunite on the Lido after having shot the movie under an interim agreement last year in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Pat Saperstein Deputy EditorThe Venice Film Festival kicked off the fall festival season in style this week, with premieres of anticipated new movies like “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and “Maria” as well as the prestige TV series “Disclaimer.” Still to come are “Joker: Folie à Deux,” “Queer,” “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter Two,” “Wolfs” and much more.Nicole Kidman, Lady Gaga, Brad Pitt, Daniel Craig and George Clooney are just a few of the major stars set to hit the red carpet in upcoming days. Check out some of the dazzling gowns and red carpet fashion at Italy’s 81st Venice Film Festival.“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” stars Jenna Ortega and Winona Ryder hit the red carpet ahead of the Venice Film Festival premiere.Sigourney Weaver was honored with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the opening ceremony of 81st Venice International Film Festival.“Disclaimer” stars Jung Ho-yeon and Cate Blanchett on the red carpet for the AppleTV+ series in Venice.Sacha Baron Cohen also stars in “Disclaimer.” Cate Blanchett donned an Armani Privé catsuit with pearls accenting the backless design on the “Disclaimer” carpet.Kodi Smit-McPhee sports a detailed jacket on the “Disclaimer” carpet.Patti Smith attended the premiere of “Maria,” clad in what Vogue magazine characterized as “IDGAF dressing.”Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Angelina Jolie, director Pablo Larrain and Haluk Bilginer on the “Maria” red carpet.

Accepting his party’s nomination for president for the third time, Donald Trump addressed the Republican National Convention in July, returning to a familiar theme.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor MAD Celebrity — the talent management subsidiary of the pan-Arab film and TV company MAD Solutions — has signed Tunisian actor and writer Majd Mastoura, French Lebanese actor Isabelle Zighondi, and Saudi actor, producer and director Amawri Ezayah to the roster of its MAD Rising Celebrity unit, and visual artist, producer and DOP Mostafa El Kashef, who will be joining MAD Crew Celebrity. Mastoura is best known for his work on Mohamed Ben Attia’s “Hedi” — for which he received a Silver Bear for best actor from the Berlin Film Festival, making him the first-ever Arab actor to receive the award — and Léonor Serraille’s “Mother and Son,” which world premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Agnieszka Holland’s migrant crisis drama Green Border has achieved the best opening weekend in Poland for a Polish film in 2023 in spite of a fierce political backlash from the country’s right-wing government.

In principle, using the rainy-day, kitchen-sink post-rock of Manchester band The Smiths so prominently in a film like The Killer seems incredibly perverse, given that it’s an exotic, globe-trotting thriller about an American assassin. But in reality, it’s actually very sound choice indeed: legend has it that the band’s singer, Morrissey, had two reasons for naming his band so, the first being that “Smith” is one of the most common and thus unremarkable surnames in the world. The second, and much more subversive theory, suggests that it’s also a reference to David and Maureen Smith, brother-in-law and sister of ’60s serial killer Myra Hindley, the snappily dressed couple whose testimony blew open the Moors Murderers case and whose beatnik likenesses adorn the cover of Sonic Youth’s 1990 album “Goo”.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor “Sex is back,” said Julie Hintsinger, executive director of the Telluride Film Festival, to a packed house of festival-goers as they took in the newest effort from Yorgos Lanthimos at this year’s 50th anniversary. One of the festivals tributes this year, a pre-screening convo was moderated by director Karyn Kusama, as the two discussed his filmography which included his early works “Kinnetic” and “Alps.” In the audience were Oscar winners like director Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) and actor Casey Affleck (“Manchester by the Sea”), and they, along with the crowd, devoured it.

Five years after his triumphant A Star is Born world premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Bradley Cooper is back on the Lido with Maestro. Except, the director and star is only here in spirit owing to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

his role in “The Whale.”After the screening of the film at the London Film Festival on Tuesday, the audience gave a five-minute standing ovation, according to the Daily Mail.The 53-year-old actor broke down in tears as he bowed to the audience’s cheers and applause. This isn’t the first time Fraser was moved to tears by a standing ovation. At the Venice Film Festival in early September, he got emotional during a six-minute standing ovation for his performance in the film. Audience members got déjà vu from the standing ovation.“Am I at Venice? 5 min standing ovation for Brendan Fraser’s masterpiece performance in #TheWhale.

Dear Alejandro:

of late, from the translucent Interior NYC gown she wore to Westworld’s season four premiere to the dramatic and cycling shorts she sported on the streets of London earlier this summer.Over at Venice Film Festival, the actor has already delivered a series of stand-out moments—arriving in style in , paired with a clashing Vivienne Westwood bag and bright red gloves. This was quickly followed up with a black tulle skirt and oversized blazer by Rodarte, worn with a black bralette underneath.For her latest red-carpet appearance on Wednesday, August 31, Thompson opted for vintage—stepping out for the White Noise premiere in a sci-fi inspired look from Armani Privé’s autumn/winter 2009 couture show.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentNetflix has dropped the official trailer from Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde,” an NC-17 biopic starring Ana de Armas as Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. The movie, based on the bestselling novel by Joyce Carol Oates, will world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival.“Blonde” reimagines the life of Marilyn Monroe, from her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements.

A film festival is about more than just the films and the festival center. It is about the location, the journey, the experience. Here on Deadline, we’ll be bringing you updates on what it’s like to be on the ground at the Venice Film Festival, which continues on schedule for a second year in a row despite the pandemic disrupting other events.