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Boatloads of high-wattage stars are set to disembark at this year’s Venice Film Festival. 

Lady Gaga, Joaquin Phoenix, Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Craig, Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Cate Blanchett, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Monica Bellucci, Michael Keaton and Jenna Ortega are among A-list talents toplining high-profile titles that will premiere at the Lido’s Palazzo del Cinema. 

But besides being a glitzy affair, Venice’s upcoming 81st edition – which features a rich mix of known names and potential discoveries across a wide range of genres – also looks set to bolster the event’s status as the top destination for studios and streamers to build Oscar campaigns and a prime launchpad for the cream of the year’s cinematic crop. 

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Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera noted during the press conference that “millions of people” have watched the “Joker 2” trailer on the internet that “reveals very little” about the plot.

“I won’t either,” he said, “because nobody can imagine what Todd and his screenwriters have been able to come up with to recount the vicissitudes of Joaquin Phoenix (Arthur Fleck)  who is locked up in a criminal asylum where he meets Lady Gaga (the equally twisted Harley Quinn) as he awaits trial for the five homicides we saw in the previous film,” Barbera said. He went on to point out that “Phillips confirms himself as being one of the most original directors in contemporary American cinema.”

Also vying for a Lion is Luca Guadagnino’s William S. Burroughs adaptation “Queer,” in which Daniel Craig plays the renowned counterculture author’s alter ego, an outcast American expat who lives in Mexico and is fighting a heroin addiction. “Outer Banks” star Drew Starkey also features as a younger man with whom the expat becomes madly infatuated, and musician Omar Apollo also has a role.

Barbera called Craig’s “unusual” turn in the film “the performance of his life.”

 Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature film, “The Room Next Door,” starring Oscar winners Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, is also ensconced in the Venice competition berth. “Room Next Door” is Almodóvar’s follow-up to 2021’s “Parallel Mothers,” which bowed at Venice and scored the fest’s best actress Volpi Cup for Penelope Cruz’s performance.  

The competition also features Pablo Larraín’s Maria Callas biopic “Maria,” starring Jolie in the title role. Larraín’s previous two tragic female biopics — “Spencer” starring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana and “Jackie” with Natalie Portman as Kennedy Onassis — both launched from the Lido. 

Brady Corbet will be back on the Lido with drama “The Brutalist,” which chronicles 30 years in the life of László Tóth, a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who survived the Holocaust, played by Adrien Brody. The hotly anticipated drama also stars Felicity Jones, Joe Alwyn, Alessandro Nivola, Guy Pearce and Stacy Martin, among other talents. “The Brutalist” segues from Corbet’s features “The Childhood of a Leader,” which won best first film at Venice in 2015, and “Vox Lux,” with Natalie Portman and Jude Law, that launched on the Lido in 2018. 

Australian director Justin Kurzel’s “The Order,” starring Law and Nicholas Hoult in a tale about the titular white supremacist organization that operated in the 1980s, is another buzz worthy title in competition. 

Dutch director Halina Reijn (“Bodies, Bodies, Bodies”) will launch erotic thriller “Babygirl” featuring Nicole Kidman, Antonio Banderas and Harris Dickinson from a Lido competition slot. 

Walter Salles will be looking to be lionized with “I’m Still Here,” the Brazilian auteur’s first feature in more than a decade, which reunites Salles with his Oscar-nominated “Central Station” star Fernanda Montenegro. The film follows the true story of Eunice Paiva, a mother of five who is forced into activism after her husband is captured by the military regime in Brazil in the 1960s. 

Another hotly anticipated film competing from Latin America is Luis Ortega’s crime drama “Kill the Jockey,” about a talented jockey with addiction issues who falls into a mobster’s clutches. “Jockey” follows Ortega’s 2018 Cannes Un Certain Regard hit “El Angel.”  

Alfonso Cuaron is back in Venice with Apple TV+ series “Disclaimer,” starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline. Blanchett plays an investigative journalist who becomes the main character in a story that exposes her darkest secrets. Joe Wright’s Sky Studios TV drama “M. Son of the Century,” which chronicles Benito Mussolini’s rise to power, is also among the fest’s rich TV series offerings. 

The Venice opener, as previously announced, is Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Burton’s follow-up to his 1988 comedy-horror classic, in which Michael Keaton returns as the foul-mouthed, shape-shifting ghoul. Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Jenna Ortega and Willem Dafoe also star in the hotly anticipated new “Beetlejuice” chapter bowing from the Lido out-of-competition on Aug. 28, prior to releasing in the U.S. on Sept. 6 via Warner Bros. and internationally starting Sept. 4. 

The Jon Watts-directed action comedy “Wolfs,” produced by Apple Original Films, pairing George Clooney and Brad Pitt as two lone-wolf fixers forced to work together in covering up a high-profile crime, is also bowing from an out-of-competition slot before hitting U.S. theaters Sept. 20 via Sony. 

Also premiering out-of-competition is U.S. bad boy Harmony Korine’s “Baby Invasion,” a home invasion thriller about a group of mercenaries who use baby faces as avatars to conceal their identity. The “Spring Breakers” and “Beach Bum” director caused a stir in Venice last year with the ear-popping experimental action film “Aggro Dr1ft.”   

Back to the competition. The French contingent vying for a Golden Lion comprises Emmanuel Moret-directed romantic comedy “Trois Amies,” toplining “Call My Agent” star Camille Cottin, and coming-of-age drama “And Their Children After Them” by Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma (“Teddy”) which follows three teenagers across four summers in a small rural town in the northeast of France during the 90s.  

Also competing from France is 1950s-set drama “The Quiet Son,” directed by sister duo Delphine and Muriel Coulin (“17 Girls”) and toplining Vincent Lindon (“Titane”). 

Legendary French helmer Claude Lelouch (“A Man and a Woman”) will be in Venice with out-of-competition entry “Finalement,” a lighthearted ensemble comedy about a man on a life-changing road trip with a cast of French stars comprising Kad Merad (“Baron Noir”), Elsa Zylberstein (“Simone”), Sandrine Bonnaire, Raphael Mezrahi, Michel Boujenah and Barbara Pravi. 

Italy has five entries in competition, a panoply of works in different genres helmed by directors of different genders and generations. 

Besides Guadagnino’s “Queer,” there is veteran helmer Gianni Amelio’s World War I drama “Battlefield” starring Alessandro Borghi (“The Eight Mountains”), and “Sicilian Letters” (“Iddu”), the buzzy non-conventional biopic of Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro – who was dubbed “the last godfather” – directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”). The other two Italian entries – both by young female directors – are “Vermiglio, The Mountain Bride” a drama involving three sisters and a soldier set in an Alpine village at the end of World War II; and Giulia Steigerwalt’s “Diva Futura,” the true tale of a Rome porn outfit founded in the 1980s by impresario Riccardo Schicchi and porn-star-turned politician Ilona Staller (aka Cicciolina). 

Norwegian filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud is in the running with “Love,” his follow-up to “Sex” which premiered in Berlin earlier this year and completes his trilogy delving into the complexities of human relationships, sexuality and societal norms. 

Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari (“Attenberg,” “Chevalier”) is back in Venice with the Scotland-set neo-Western “Harvest,” starring Caleb Landry Jones and based on the award-winning novel of the same name by Jim Crace. 

The Asian contingent in competition comprises Singaporean surveillance thriller “Stranger Eyes” by “A Land Imagined” director Yeo Siew Hua and prolific Chinese director Wang Bing’s documentary “Youth – Homecoming,” both in competition. Asia’s robust representation in Venice also includes new works unspooling out-of-competition by Japanese masters Takeshi Kitano, who will bow medium-length feature “Broken Rage,” and Kurosawa Kiyoshi, who is debuting thriller “Cloud.”  

Competing from Georgia is Dea Kulumbegashvili’s drama “April,” about a female obstetrician who performs illegal abortions in a rural part of Georgia. “April” segues from the director’s highly praised debut “Beginning.” 

The Arab presence on the Lido sees two titles in the more cutting-edge Horizons section: Tunisian director Mehdi M. Barsaoui’s drama “Aïcha,” about a woman who flees from her small town life after miraculously surviving a bus accident, and Palestinian director Scandar Copti’s “Happy Holidays,” set in contemporary Israel, where a minor accident in Jerusalem triggers a chain of events.  

Egypt is back in the Venice official selection after more than a decade with Horizons Extra entry “Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo,” a first feature by Khaled Mansour about a young man forced to confront his fears and rediscover himself when he goes on a journey to save his dog and best friend.  

Italian drama “Nonostante,” by actor-director Valerio Mastandrea, and 1972 Munich Summer Olympics drama “September 5,” helmed by Tim Fehlbaum and starring Peter Sarsgaard, are the previously set openers of the Horizons and Horizons Extra sections respectively. 

Also as previously announced, Isabelle Huppert will preside over the main jury. 

The 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival will run Aug. 28-Sept. 7. 

See the full lineup below.

COMPETITION

“The Room Next Door,” Pedro Almodóvar (Spain)

“Campo di Battaglia,” Gianni Amelio (Italy) 

“Leurs Enfants Après Eux,” Ludovic Bouckherma, Zoran Boukherma (France)  

“The Brutalist,” Brady Corbet (U.K.) 

“The Quiet Son,” Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin (France) 

“Vermiglio,” Maura Delpero (Italy, France, Belgium) 

“Sicilian Letters,” Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza (Italy, France) 

“Queer,” Luca Guadagnino (Italy, U.S.) 

“Love,” Dag Johan Haugerud (Norway) 

“April,” Dea Kulumbegashvili (Georgia, France, Italy) 

“The Order,” Justin Kurzel (Canada) 

“Maria,” Pablo Larrain (Italy, Germany) 

“Trois Amies,” Emmanuel Mouret (France) 

“Kill the Jockey,” Luis Ortega (Argentina, Spain)

“Joker: Folie à Deux,” Todd Phillips (U.S.) 

“Babygirl,” Halina Reijn (U.S.) 

“I’m Still Here,” Walter Salles (Brazil, France) 

“Diva Futura,” Giulia Louise Steigerwalt (Italy) 

“Harvest,” Athina Rachel Tsangari (U.K., Germany, Greece, France, U.S.) 

“Youth – Homecoming,” Wang Bing (France, Luxembourg, Netherlands) 

“Stranger Eyes,” Yeo Siew Hua (Singapore, Taipei, France, U.S.) 

OUT OF COMPETITION — FICTION

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Tim Burton (U.S., U.K.) – Opening Film

“L’Orto Americano,” Pupi Avati (Italy) — Closing Film  

“Il Tempo Che Ci Vuole,” Francesca Comencini (Italy, France) 

“Phantosmia,” Lav Diaz (Philippines) 

“Maldoror,” Fabrice Du Welz (Belgium, France) 

“Broken Rage,” Takeshi Kitano (Japan) 

“Baby Invasion,” Harmony Korine (U.S.) 

“Cloud,” Kurosawa Kiyoshi (Japan) 

“Finalement,” Claude Lelouch (France)

“Wolfs,” Jon Watts (U.S.)  

“Se Posso Permettermi Capitolo II,” Marco Bellocchio (Italy) 

“Allégorie Citadine,” Alice Rohrwacher, JR (France) 

OUT OF COMPETITION – SERIES

“Disclaimer,” Alfonso Cuaron (U.K., U.S.) 

“The New Years,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen Del Amo, Sandra Romero, David Martín De Los Santos (Spain) 

“Families Like Ours,” Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark, France, Sweden, Czech Republic, Norway, Germany)

“M: Son of the Century,” Joe Wright (Italy, France)  

OUT OF COMPETITION – NON-FICTION

“Apocalypse in the Tropics,” Petra Costa (Brazil) 

“Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari,” Massimo D’Anolfi, Martina Parenti (Italy, Switzerland) 

“Why War,” Amos Gitai (Israel, France) 

“2073,” Asif Kapadia (U.K.) 

“One to One: John & Yoko,” Kevin Macdonald, Sam Rice Edwards (U.K.) 

“Separated,” Errol Morris (U.S., Mexico) 

“Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989,” Göran Hugo Olsson (Sweden, Finland, Denmark) 

“Russians at War,” Anastasia Trofimova (France, Canada) 

“Twst/Things We Said Today,” Andrei Ujica (France, Romania) 

“Songs of Slow Burning Earth,” Olha Zhurba (Ukraine, Denmark, Sweden) 

“Riefenstahl,” Andres Veiel (Germany) 

OUT OF COMPETITION — SPECIAL SCREENINGS

“Leopardi. Il Poeta Dell’Infinito” (Parts 1 and 2), Sergio Rubini (Italy) 

“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” (2003), Peter Weir (U.S.) 

“Beauty Is Not a Sin,” Nicolas Winding Refn (Italy, Denmark) 

HORIZONS

“Nonostante,” Valerio Mastandrea (Italy) – Opening Film

“Quiet Life,” Alexandros Avranas (France, Germany, Sweden, Greece, Estonia, Finland  

“Mon Inséparable,” Anne-Sophie Bailly (France) 

“Aïcha,” Mehdi Barsaoui (Tunisia, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) 

“Happy Holidays,” Scandar Copti (Germany, Italy, Qatar) 

“Familia,” Francesco Costabile (Italy) 

“One of Those Days When Hemme Dies,” Murat Firatoglu (Turkey)

“Familiar Touch,” Sarah Friedland (U.S.) 

“Marco,” Jon Garraño, Aitor Arregi (Spain) 

“Carissa,” Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar (South Africa) 

“Wishing on a Star,” Péter Kerekes – Documentary – (Italy, Croatia, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic) 

“Mistress Dispeller,” – Documentary – Elizabeth Lo (China) 

“The New Year That Never Came,” Bogdan Muresanu (Romania, Serbia) 

“Pooja, Sir,” Deepak Rauniyar (Nepal, U.S., Norway)

“Of Dogs and Men,” Dani Rosenberg (Israel, Italy) 

“Pavements,” Alex Ross Perry (U.S.)  

“Happyend,” Neo Sora (Japan, U.S.) 

“L’Attachement,” Carine Tardieu (France, Belgium)

“Diciannove,” Giovanni Tortorici (Italy, U.K.)  

HORIZONS EXTRA 

“September 5,” Tim Fehlbaum (Germany) 

“Vittoria,” Alessandro Cassignoli, Casey Kauffman (Italy) 

“Le Mohican,” Frédéric Farrucci (France) 

“Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo,” Khaled Mansour (Egypt, Saudi Arabia) 

“La Storia Del Frank e Della Nina,” Paola Randi (Italy, Switzerland) 

“The Witness,” Nader Saeivar (Germany, Austria) 

“After Party,” Vojtech Strakaty (Czech Republic) 

“Edge of Night,” Türker Süer (Germany, Turkey) 

“King Ivory,” John Swab (U.S.) 

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