The Films to Look Forward to at the Venice Film Festival

"With headline slots locked in for Guillermo Del Toro (Frankenstein), Kathryn Bigelow (A House of Dynamite), Noah Baumbach (Jay Kelly), Yorgos Lanthimos (Bugonia) and Luca Guadagnino (After the Hunt), the Italian film festival's 82nd edition could find itself with multiple Hollywood awards contenders on its hands, with international heavy hitters from Park Chan-wook to Paolo Sorrentino and Francois Ozon also on the Lido."

"The ever-eclectic Olivier Assayas turns his hand to political drama with The Wizard of the Kremlin, adapted from Giuliano da Empoli's novel riffing on the rise of artist turned political fixer Vladislav Surkov. With plumb roles for Paul Dano, Alicia Vikander and Jude Law as a young(ish) Vladimir Putin, the film promises an intriguing portrait of a defining figure in post-Soviet politics once described as a poet among wolves."

"It's a Safdie Brothers smackdown this year as sibling auteurs Benny and Josh get set to unveil their big solo outings, Benny landing the first blow with The Smashing Machine, a sports biopic about MMA fighter Mark Kerr starring The Rock in heavy prosthetic makeup. (Josh's Marty Supreme receives its premiere in December.) Benny's Oppenheimer co-star Emily Blunt plays Kerr's wife, Dawn Staples. Knowing the director, we can expect anything but a straightforward sports biopic."

The Venice Film Festival's 82nd edition assembles high-profile American and international films occupying headline slots, positioning several as potential awards contenders. Filmmakers include Guillermo Del Toro, Kathryn Bigelow, Noah Baumbach, Yorgos Lanthimos and Luca Guadagnino alongside Park Chan-wook, Paolo Sorrentino and Francois Ozon. The festival also features a notably strong documentary lineup with new work from Sofia Coppola, Laura Poitras, Werner Herzog and Tsai Ming-liang. Notable narrative entries spotlight Olivier Assayas's political drama The Wizard of the Kremlin, Benny Safdie's sports biopic The Smashing Machine, and a broader list of ten films singled out as key titles to watch.

Read at www.anothermag.com