Venice Film Festival Lineup Launches Awards Bids For 'mother!,' 'Suburbicon,' and More (original) (raw)

The Venice Film Festival is turning up the heat for potential Oscar contenders as the pieces of the awards season puzzle begin falling into place.

Thursday morning marked the announcement of the annual industry staple’s 74th lineup, which includes the Jennifer Lawrence-starring mother!, Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, and George Clooney’s latest directorial effort, Suburbicon.

Alexander Payne’s sci-fi-tinged dramedy Downsizing was previously announced to host its world premiere in the opening competition slot at this year’s event. Jane Fonda and Robert Redford are also set to receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at a special ceremony next month, while their Netflix film, Our Souls at Night, will show at Venice as a non-competitive title.

The Italian festival has played a significant role in igniting the Oscar runs of contemporary films in recent years, with 12 Venice debuters (including The Hurt Locker, Gravity, Birdman, and Arrival) going on to win or receive a Best Picture nomination since 2007. Though not as frequent a portent of crossover acting winners, last year’s Volpi Cup champion, Emma Stone, translated her Venice triumph into her first Academy Award victory for her role in Damien Chazelle’s 2016 awards juggernaut La La Land.

While screening at Venice can be key for a project’s awards trajectory, the last time the festival’s highest honor, the Golden Lion, was awarded to an eventual Best Picture nominee was in 2005, when Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain earned the prestigious prize.

Venice’s announcement comes days after Toronto unveiled the first portion of its slate, as three of the industry’s four major Oscar-priming festivals (Venice, Toronto, Telluride, and New York) jockey for the buzziest titles poised to enter the fray in the contentious awards season ahead. A noted festival policy reportedly prevents films from showing at Telluride before their scheduled Venice bows, meaning scheduling difficulties for several of this morning’s announced titles — approximately eight, according to Variety — looking to screen at both key precursor events.

Check out the lineup for the 74th Venice International Film Festival, which runs Aug. 30 through Sept. 9, below.

IN COMPETITION
“Human Flow,” Ai Weiwei (Germany, U.S.)
“mother!”, Darren Aronofsky (U.S.)
“Suburbicon,” George Clooney (U.S.)
“The Shape Of Water,” Guillermo Del Toro (U.S.)
“L’Insulte,” Ziad Doueiri (France, Lebanon)
“La Villa,” Robert Guediguian (France)
“Lean on Pete,” Andrew Haigh (U.K.)
“Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno,” Abdellatif Kechiche
“The Third Murder,” Koreada Hirkazu (Japan)
“Jusqu’a La Garde,” Xavier Legrand (France)
“Amore e Malavita,” Manetto Bros. (Italy)
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (U.K.)
“Hannah,” Andrea Pallaoro (Italy, Belgium, France)
“Downsizing,” Alexander Payne (U.S.)
“Angels Wear White,” Vivian Qu (China, France)
“Una Famiglia,” Sebastiano Risio (Italy)
“First Reformed,” Paul Schrader (U.S.)
“Sweet Country,” Warwick Thornton (Australia)
“The Leisure Seeker,” Paolo Virzì (Italy)
“Ex Libris – The New York Public Library, Frederick Wiseman (U.S.)

OUT OF COMPETITION
Special Events
“Casa D’Altri,” Gianni Amelio (Italy)
“Michael Jackson’s Thriller 3D,” John Landis (U.S)
“Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller,” Jerry Kramer (U.S.)

FICTION
“Our Souls at Night,” Ritesh Batra (U.S.)
“Il Signor Rotopeter,” Antonietta De Lillo (Italy)
“Victoria and Abdul,” Stephen Frears (U.K.)
“La Melodie,” Rachid Hami (France)
“Outrage Coda,” Kitano Takes (Japan)
“Loving Pablo,” Fernando Leon De Aranoa (Spain)
“Zama,” Lucrecia Martel (Argentina, Brazil)
“Wormwood,” Errol Morris (U.S.)
“Diva!”, Francesco Patierno (Italy)
“La Fidele,” Michael R. Roskam (Belgium, France, Netherlands)
“The Private Life of a Modern Woman,” James Toback (U.S.)
“Brawl in Cell Block 99,” S. Craig Zahler (U.S.)

NON-FICTION
“Cuba And The Cameraman,” Jon Albert (U.S.)
“My Generation,” David Batty (U.K)
“The Devil and Father Amorth,” William Friedkin (U.S.)
“This Is Congo,” Daniel McCabe (Congo)
“Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda,” Stephen Nomura Schible (U.S., Japan)
“Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond. The Story of Jim Carrey, Andy Kaufman, and Tony Clifton,” Chris Smith (U.S.)
“Happy Winter,” Giovanni Totaro (Italy)

HORIZONS
“Disappearance,” Ali Asgari (Iran, Qatar)
“Especes Menaces,” Gilles Bourdos (France, Belgium)
“The Rape of Recy Taylor,” Nancy Buirski (U.S.)
“Caniba,” Lucian Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel (France)
“Les Bienheureux,” Sofia Djama (France, Belgium)
“Marvin,” Anne Fontaine (France)
“Invisibile,” Pablo Giorgelli (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Germany)
“Brutti e Cattivi,” Cosimo Gomez (Italy, France)
“The Cousin,” Tzahi Grad (Israel)
“Reparer les vivants,” Katell Quillevere (France, Belgium)
“The Testament,” Amichai Greenberg (Israel, Austria)
“No Date, No Signature,” Vahid Jalilvand (Iran)
“Los Versos Del Olvido,” Alireza Khatami (France, Germany, Netherlands, Chile)
“Nico, 1988,” Susanna Nicchiarelli (Italy)
“Krieg,” Rick Ostermann, Barbara Auer (Germany)
“West of Sunshine,” Jason Raftopoulos (Australia)
“Gotta Cenerentola,” Alessandro Rak, Ivan Cappiello, Marino Guarnieri, Dario Sansone (Italy)
“Under The Tree,” Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson (Iceland, Denmark, Poland, Germany)
“La Vita in Comune,” Edoardo Winspeare (Italy)