'A Star Is Born' to launch Oscar bid with Venice Film Festival world premiere (original) (raw)

Published on July 23, 2018 09:28AM EDT

A Star Is Born is launching its Oscar prospects with a high profile stop on the awards season trail.

The Venice International Film Festival announced Monday that Bradley Cooper’s Lady Gaga-starring feature directorial debut A Star Is Born will host its world-premiere screening on Aug. 31 as part of the annual festival’s out-of-competition lineup.

In this long-gestating fourth adaptation of the classic entertainment industry romance since 1937, Cooper plays a fading country musician named Jackson Maine, whose personal demons prompt a downward spiral. When Jackson meets and falls for struggling singer-songwriter Ally (Gaga), however, his vitality — and her budding music career — takes off, though his ongoing internal battle threatens their relationship altogether.

In addition to starring in the production, Cooper and Gaga also wrote and recorded original songs for the film’s soundtrack with the latter’s frequent collaborators like “Born This Way” producer DJ White Shadow, Joanne executive producer Mark Ronson, as well as Jason Isbell, Lukas Nelson, and Dave Cobb.

Venice’s announcement comes days before the festival is set to reveal its full competitive lineup, which is expected to include several high profile Oscar hopefuls to watch in the coming months. Venice has long launched key Oscar-bound films into the awards conversation at large, particularly igniting the Academy Award runs of The Hurt Locker, Gravity, Birdman, Arrival, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and eight other films that have gone on to win or receive a Best Picture nomination since 2007.

Damien Chazelle’s upcoming Neil Armstrong biopic First Man was previously announced as the 75th Venice Film Festival’s opening night film — a slot previously occupied by Chazelle’s 2016 Oscar juggernaut La La Land and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s best picture champion Birdman in recent years.

A Star Is Born — set for domestic release on Oct. 5 — is also presumed to make pit stops elsewhere on the fall festival circuit, including at the Toronto International Film Festival and Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival, both of which were visited by the likes of past best picture winners The Shape of Water and Spotlight following their respective Venice world premieres.

The 2018 Venice International Film Festival runs from Aug. 29 through Sept. 8. For more information on this year’s edition, head to the official website here.