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Source: Deadline
It was not too long ago when the Cannes Film Festival, highly regarded as one of the most prominent events in the world of cinema, concluded for the year after the previous year’s event had to be cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Taking place between early to mid July of this year, the 2021 Cannes Film Festival introduced a wide variety of films that hope to make their presence known throughout the globe, especially when it comes to major awards recognition. As prestigious as Cannes is though, it is only the beginning of what will no doubt be a very long and very exciting awards season, and just recently, one upcoming festival, which has become something of a predictor in recent years when it comes to showcasing award-worthy films, announced its full lineup of films that will be exhibited over the eleven-day period it will be held. That event, of course, is the 2021 Venice Film Festival.
On Monday, July 26th, organizers of the upcoming Venice Film Festival, the 78th consecutive instance in which it has been held, made its selection of films known to the general public, announcing a long list of cinematic works both feature-length and short. All of them will either premiere or be screened at its various venues throughout Venice, Italy between September 1st and September 11th, and will showcase a wide variety of talents originating from 59 countries throughout the world. As opposed to last year, which had seen a reduced presence from American and major-studio productions (in large part due to how the pandemic had forced many of these productions to a halt), there is a much greater number of such films set to be exhibited at this year’s festival, many of which are said to be some of the most highly anticipated of the year.
Of the major studios, it is Universal that will have the greatest presence at the Venice Film Festival with three films: “Halloween Kills”, the latest in the long-running “Halloween” horror franchise; “Last Night in Soho”, the newest work of cinema from Edgar Wright (of “Baby Driver” and the Three Flavors trilogy fame); and “The Card Counter”, a crime drama written and directed by Paul Schrader, best known as the screenwriter of “Taxi Driver” (it and “Last Night” are being distributed under Universal’s Focus Features label). Warner Brothers, meanwhile, will showcase its long awaited cinematic adaptation of “Dune” (directed by “Arrival” and “Blade Runner 2049”’s Denis Villeneuve), while Disney, through its 20th Century Studios label, will present “The Last Duel”, a Ridley Scott historical drama with the first script Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (as well as Nicole Holofcener) have written together since 1997’s “Good Will Hunting”. Although some may be a bit concerned with so many major American works in what is supposed to be an international affair, Venice chief Alberto Barbera seems to be nothing short of enthusiastic. “There is a strong comeback of the Americans”, Barbera notes, seemingly excited by how much the American film industry has recovered from the prior year.
Even with there being so many American-made films present at the Venice Film Festival, that does not mean that there won’t be plenty of opportunities for films made outside the States to make a name for themselves. As stated earlier, there will be films hailing from 59 different nations that will be exhibited throughout the events, many of which are expected to demonstrate the best that international filmmakers have to offer. Naturally, for a festival set entirely in Italy, there will be a great number of Italian films set to be screened, many of them made by some of the country’s most revered auters. These include Michelangelo Frammartino with “Il Buco”, the D’Innocenzo brothers with “America Latina”, Gabrielle Mainetti with “Freaks Out”, among many other Italian directors. France will also use the Venice Film Festival as a means of showcasing its own recently-made works of cinema, with the most notable being Stéphane Brizé’s “Un Autre Monde” (of which its star Vincent Lindon recently appeared in newest Palme d’Or title-holder “Titane”) and Xavier Giannoli’s “Illusions Perdues”. In addition to all of these titles, Ukranian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov will debut his latest creation, “Rhino”, as part of Venice’s Horizons section.
Because there are so many films set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival, many industry analysts will be playing close attention to see which will go on to be the frontrunners of the year’s upcoming award season, especially considering how many of the films that had premiered at previous festivals had gone on to do just that. In fact, it was the previous Golden Lion winner, Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland”, that would end up repeating this success and win Best Pictures at the Academy Awards. Other films that have premiered at Venice and would end up with their fair share of awards success include “Joker” and “Marriage Story” in 2019; “A Star Is Born” and “Roma” in 2018; “The Shape Of Water”, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri”, and “The Favourite” in 2017; and “La La Land” and “Arrival” in 2016. If this pattern continues into this upcoming festival, then there’s a strong chance that any one of the films set to premiere will become a major contender in the upcoming awards season.
Speaking of award-winning films, Bong Joon-Ho, whose 2019 film “Parasite” was named Best Picture of that year, will serve as the jury president of the festival this year, where he will be joined by one of his fellow jurors, the aforementioned Chloe Zhao. Given the successful track records both of these directors have had with their respective Best Picture winners, it’s safe to say that their judgment will prove to be quite effective when it comes to determining which of Venice’s offerings this year are the best of the best.
With many of the same anti-COVID procedures that were enforced at the 2020 festival returning for this year’s event, many are hoping that all of the proceedings will be executed in a way that will ensure that everyone attending is as safe from infection as possible. If it is able to achieve just that, then the Venice Film Festival will undoubtedly be a tremendous success, one that could see at least a small handful of commendable films worthy of awards recognition in the near future.
