13 Hottest Venice Film Festival Movies, From Fincher to Coppola

Things were looking bleak for the Venice International Film Festival in July, when MGM/Amazon chose to withdraw Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, featuring Zendaya in a tennis throuple, as the fest’s opening-night film owing to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. But the Italian celebration of cinema — and its artistic director, Alberto Barbera — would not be denied, dropping a lineup of hotly anticipated movies that puts many of its rival festivals to shame.

The 80^th Venice Film Festival, running from Aug. 30 to Sept. 9 on the Lido, boasts a jury led by Damien Chazelle, as well as a number of promising films from across the world. In recent years, it’s managed to close the gap between itself and Cannes, since the latter is still imposing a ban against Netflix films. Cannes’ loss is Venice’s gain, as this year brings the Netflix titles The Killer, directed by David Fincher and starring Michael Fassbender as an assassin embroiled in an international conspiracy; Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro; Pablo Larrain’s Pinochet-as-vampire surrealist drama El Conde; Wes Anderson’s short-film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar; and more. There are also films from the likes of Michael Mann, Sofia Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Richard Linklater, and Harmony Korine. (Controversially, Woody Allen and Roman Polanski also have films debuting in Venice, though the less said about their recent output the better.)  

Over the last decade, Venice has evolved into the premier launching pad for awards-courting films, with Birdman, Spotlight, La La Land, The Shape of Water, Roma, A Star Is Born, Joker, Nomadland, Dune, The Banshees of Inisherin, and Tár all unspooling there.

Though there will be less stars on the Lido this year, the lineup is looking stronger than ever. Here are the most anticipated movies at the 2023 Venice Film Festival.

‘The Killer’

NETFLIX

Marking the long-awaited reunion between director David Fincher and his Seven screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker (unless you count his punch-up duties on The Game and Fight Club), this adaptation of a French graphic novel centers an assassin dubbed The Killer (played by Michael Fassbender) who finds himself the target of a globe-trotting manhunt after a botched job. There will, most certainly, be blood. Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, and Tilda Swinton star alongside Fassbender, while Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross handle the score. The film will be released Oct. 27 in theaters and Nov. 10 on Netflix.

‘Ferrari’

STX ENTERTAINMENT

Adam Driver will once again play a slick, sartorially savvy Italian fella (see: House of Gucci) in filmmaker Michael Mann’s first feature since 2015’s critically misunderstood Blackhat. Here, Driver is Formula 1 racer Enzo Ferrari, who finds himself in dire straits in 1957. With his company on the verge of bankruptcy and his marriage to wife Laura (Penélope Cruz) in shambles, he defies the odds and embarks on a 1,000-mile race across Italy. Shailene Woodley, Sarah Gadon, Jack O’Connell, and Patrick Dempsey also star. The film hits theaters Dec. 25.

‘Priscilla’

A24

Yes, we already had a show-stopping Elvis film last year courtesy of Baz Luhrmann and Austin Butler, but any film by the great Sofia Coppola is a cultural moment, and no filmmaker is better at examining powerful, flawed men through the eyes of a young woman (which may have a little something to do with her own upbringing). The film follows Priscilla Presley (rising star Cailee Spaeny) and her wild life with Elvis Presley (Euphoria‘s Jacob Elordi), whom she met when she was only 14 and he was 24. The film will be released in theaters Oct. 27.

‘Maestro’

NETFLIX

Overblown prosthetic nose controversy aside, this biopic about the relationship between legendary composer Leonard Bernstein (played by Bradley Cooper) and his wife, actress and activist Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan) — Bernstein was gay, and had many male lovers — is one to watch because it’s also Cooper’s sophomore feature behind the camera after his dazzling directorial debut A Star Is Born. That film premiered in Venice too, so can lightning strike twice? Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, Sarah Silverman, and Michael Urie feature, and it will be released in theaters on Nov. 22 and Netflix Dec. 20.

‘Poor Things’

FOX SEARCHLIGHT

The last time filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster) and star Emma Stone joined forces was for 2018’s The Favourite, which took the Venice Film Festival by storm en route to critical raves, nearly $100 million at the box office, and 9 Oscar nominations (plus a Best Actress win for Olivia Colman). Lanthimos has also reteamed with his Favourite screenwriter Tony McNamara, creator of Hulu’s The Great, for the fantastical journey of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by a mad scientist (Willem Dafoe) who ventures off in search of sexual and emotional freedom. Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, Jerrod Carmichael, Christopher Abbott, and Margaret Qualley join in, and the film hits theaters Dec. 8.

‘The Promised Land’

MUBI

The last time Danish icon Mads Mikkelsen and Danish filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel got together was 2012’s A Royal Affair, a riveting costume drama that was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars and helped launch the career of Alicia Vikander. Instead of playing a royal physician who engages in a scandalous affair with the queen, he plays Ludvig, a destitute soldier in 1755 who dedicates himself to farming for the king, but clashes with his wicked landowner (Simon Bennebjerg). Amanda Collin (Raised by Wolves) co-stars, and the film doesn’t have a U.S. release date just yet.

‘El Conde’

NETFLIX

Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain’s last three films — the biopics Jackie and Spencer, as well as Ema — all first featured in Venice, so this will make it four in a row. Before he became fascinated with profiling dynamic women, however, Larrain made a name for himself as a young director via his trilogy of films tackling the fascist Pinochet regime: Tony Manero, Post Mortem, and No. He’s returned to that territory here for a more surrealist take on the dictator, depicting him as a 250-year-old vampire (played by Jaime Vadell) who wishes to end his life. The film will be released Sept. 15 on Netflix.

‘Origin’

ARRAY

Acclaimed director Ava DuVernay (Selma) has been in TV land of late, but will make her feature filmmaking return with this adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s seminal, Pulitzer Prize-winning book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, about how social hierarchies have poisoned society. And she’s lined up a stellar collection of actors, led by Oscar-nominated actress Aunjanue Ellis, Niecy Nash-Betts, Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Nick Offerman, Victoria Pedretti, and Audra McDonald. The film is currently seeking distribution.

‘Evil Does Not Exist’

NEOPA

No director had a bigger 2021 than Ryusuke Hamaguchi. The Japanese filmmaker dropped two outstanding features that year, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and Drive My Car, with the latter winning the Oscar for Best International Feature Film and earning him directing and screenplay nods as well. Hamaguchi excels at capturing the beauty of sorrow, and his latest follows a single father and his young daughter whose serene rural community is under attack by a big Tokyo company who wishes to turn their home into a luxury glamping site for tourists.

‘Aggro Dr1ft’

EDGLRD

If you want to know what dadaist filmmaker Harmony Korine’s (Spring Breakers) been up to check out Zach Baron’s excellent interview with him in GQ. The CliffsNotes is that he’s started a collective of sorts, EDGLRD, that specializes in a variety of things — fashion, video games, art, and a suite of structure-less, experiential films meant to harness the kinetic energy of gaming. The first of these, shot entirely in infrared, is about an assassin (Jordi Mollà) who’s on a mission to take out a monstrous crime lord, played by rapper Travis Scott (Korine also helped direct Scott’s musical film Circus Maximus). This one’s going to be a trip, and does not have a distributor yet.

‘Hit Man’

AGC STUDIOS

Between The Killer, Aggro Dr1ft, and Hit Man, this year’s Venice Film Festival is heavy on tortured assassins. Unlike the two former films, this one from the great Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Dazed and Confused) comes with a lighter touch. It’s an action-comedy starring Top Gun: Maverick‘s Glen Powell as a New Orleans undercover cop posing as a hitman to catch people trying to hire him — until he gets sucked into an elaborate plot involving a beautiful woman (Adria Arjona) who desperately needs his help. The film is still seeking distribution.

‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’

NETFLIX

Wes Anderson and Roald Dahl are a match made in weirdo heaven (see: Fantastic Mr. Fox), and this 39-minute short film, adapted from the Roald Dahl story of the same name, tells the tale of a rich fella named Henry Sugar (Benedict Cumberbatch) who encounters a mysterious guru (Ben Kingsley) that can see without using his eyes. So, Sugar attempts to learn the man’s special power for gambling purposes. The film, out on Netflix Sept. 27, also features Dev Patel, Rupert Friend, Richard Ayoade, and Ralph Fiennes as Roald Dahl himself.

‘Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros’

ZIPPORAH FILMS

Frederick Wiseman is one of our greatest living filmmakers, and one of the finest documentary filmmakers to ever do it. And, at 93 years young, he’s remained remarkably prolific — Menus Plaisirs is Wiseman’s ninth film in the last decade. His fly-on-the-wall explorations of high schools, libraries, burlesque clubs, and state legislatures are so intimate and transportive that you feel as though you’re trespassing into them. Menus dives into the world of the Troisgros family, a dynasty that controls three French restaurants: Troisgros, Le Central, and La Colline. Troisgros is the crown jewel, a 93-year-old culinary institution that’s had three Michelin stars for 55 years, and Wiseman was there to document exactly how the sausage gets made in this four-hour doc.

From Rolling Stone US.