Venice Film Festival Opens with Star Power, Documentaries and Oscar Contenders

The Venice Film Festival’s 83rd edition officially opens Wednesday on the Lido, drawing a lineup of A-list talent to red carpets and waterfront venues throughout the event. Expected attendees include Robert Pattinson, George Clooney, Penélope Cruz, Rooney Mara, and brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher, with Clooney receiving a lifetime achievement award alongside Ellen Burstyn. Several films in competition are positioned as potential Oscar nominees heading into the fall awards season.

A major focal point this year centers on Alex Gibney’s nearly four-hour documentary portrait of Elon Musk, which has been in development for almost four years. The Oscar-winning filmmaker initially hesitated to take on the project but was encouraged by a close associate who saw it as a significant examination of 21st-century power. When the documentary’s existence became public, Musk dismissed it on social media as a “hit piece,” to which Gibney responded: “How would you know?”

Gibney told the Associated Press that he began the project as a Tesla owner and admirer of Musk, genuinely seeking to interview him for the film. However, Musk declined participation, prompting Gibney to conduct extensive research instead. The director interviewed hundreds of sources and ultimately concluded that Musk operates as a confidence man rather than an inventor, drawing parallels to figures from corporate scandals like Enron and the Elizabeth Holmes fraud case.

Julia Loktev’s “My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile” continues her expansive six-hour chronicle of independent Russian journalists who fled their country following the Ukraine invasion. The documentary follows young reporters facing an impossible choice: cease truthful coverage of the war, face imprisonment, or leave Russia to continue their journalism from abroad. Loktev noted that tracking these individuals over four years reveals how exile transforms from a temporary measure into an indefinite condition.

The Gaza conflict receives documentary focus through “NAZA,” a late-addition competition entry from filmmakers behind the Oscar-winning “No Other Land.” The Venice4Palestine advocacy group has called on the festival to suspend agreements with Israeli government-linked entities and requested that the Palestinian flag be displayed throughout the event, though large-scale protests are not planned this year as occurred previously.

Multiple Hollywood productions are positioned as awards contenders following the festival’s traditional role in launching the Oscar race. Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine,” featuring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as 1970s CIA operatives, appears positioned to repeat success after his previous two Venice debuts yielded nominations. Additional prestige entries include Florian Zeller’s “Bunker,” a psychological thriller with Cruz and Javier Bardem, Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” examining tabloid media shifts, and Lance Oppenheim’s “Primetime,” exploring early-2000s reality television culture through Pattinson’s performance.

International competition includes Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Look Back,” depicting two small-town manga artist aspirants, and Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love,” examining labor and freedom themes through paired couples. The festival field appears somewhat moderated this year, particularly following summer’s record box office performance and last year’s Cannes being notably absent of major blockbusters.

Women filmmakers remain significantly underrepresented in the main competition, with only one female director—Danish-Egyptian helmer May El-Toukhy—appearing in the field. This mirrors a 2018 occurrence that prompted the festival to pledge achieving at least 50 percent female-directed competition films by 2020, a commitment remaining unfulfilled. Presiding juror Maggie Gyllenhaal, whose directorial debut “The Lost Daughter” won Venice’s best screenplay honor in 2021, leads a jury including Kaouther Ben Hania amid this ongoing disparity.

Laura Poitras returns following her 2023 Golden Lion victory with a short film co-directed by Rachel Lauren Mueller examining Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minneapolis. Outside competition, documentaries from Barbara Kopple and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, alongside shorts featuring filmmaker Saoirse Ronan, provide additional female perspectives. The Venice Days sidebar opening Wednesday with Hungarian filmmaker Lili Horvát’s English-language debut “My Notes on Mars” features more than half its selections from female directors, including high-profile contributions from Mona Fastvold and Claire Denis.