All you need to know about the Venice Film Festival 2023

The Venice Film Festival returns from 30 August to 11 September in the most romantic city in the world. Despite the turmoil of the screenwriters’ strike, the world of cinema has responded. Here’s everything you need to know about the 2023 edition.

Despite predictions of complications due to the screenwriters’ strike, the full programming of the Venice International Film Festival is less disrupted than some thought.

For three months now, screenwriters have been making their voices heard by paralyzing the production of a large number of series. They are demanding higher pay, minimum employment guarantees and a greater share of the profits generated by streaming. A demonstration that continues and that reached yesterday the only one of the 100 days of strike.

This year, the 80th edition will feature films by great American directors, as well as a list of screenwriters from Europe, Asia and Latin America.

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Between tensions, expected feature films and new recruits, discover without further delay what you need to know, at J – 19 of the opening of the festival.

An offbeat opening and an exceptional jury

While the programming of the Mostra is becoming clearer every day, the opening film has been replaced. The film Challengers, starring actress Zendaya, was to open this 80th ceremony, but due to the strikes, it was replaced by Comandante d’Edoardo de Angelis.

The ultimate grail of the Venice Film Festival is the Golden Lion, the prize that all directors covet with each new edition. This year, the jury that will have the heavy task of awarding it is composed of director Damien Chazelle, to whom we owe La La Land, First Man and more recently Babylon. He will be accompanied by Jane Campion (Silver Lion for Best Director in 2021), French director Mia Hansen-Løve, documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras (winner of the 2022 Golden Lion) and Chinese actress Shu Qi.

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The Italian Gabriele Mainetti, the Irish screenwriter and filmmaker Martin McDonagh (Silver Lion of the screenplay in 2017), the Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri, and the Argentine director Santiago Mitre complete the jury.

The selection for the Lion of the Future will be chaired by Alice Diop, director and regular of the festival since she won the Silver Lion last year.

Competing for the Golden Lion

This year, the main selection brings together a variety of works including The Promised Land with Mads Mikkelsen, The Beast by Bertrand Bonnelo with Léa Seydoux, Hors Saison by Stéphane Brizé with Guillaume Canet, Maestro, biopic dedicated to Leonard Bernstein, legendary composer of West Side Story, by and with Bradley Cooper and David Fincher’s The Killer.

Sofia Coppola will also present a biopic, that of Priscilla Presley, while Michael Mann will defend the one on Enzo Ferrari with Adam Driver in the skin of the car manufacturer. Pablo Larraín and Yórgos Lánthimos will defend El Condo and Poor Things respectively.

Of the 23 titles confirmed in competition, 15 films are directed by filmmakers who participate in the Venice Film Festival for the first time.

A new edition against a backdrop of controversy

One of the greatest debates of the 7th art, and more generally of the art world: should we separate the man from the artist?

A divisive and controversial issue. Among the programming of this new Italian edition, three names of controversial directors have crept in: Luc Besson, Roman Polanski and Woody Allen.

The first two come to present out of competition The Palace and Coup de Chance. Luc Besson competes with his new psychological drama Dogman.

A rather surprising selection, when we know that the three men are or have been subject to sexual assault charges, most of which have been dismissed.

Between dramas, cancellations and newcomers, the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival is likely to be colorful and bouncing.

Discover all the films in the selection.