Venice Film Festival 2024 lineup revealed: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Guadagnino’s Queer, Joker Folie à Deux, Wolfs and Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door

Today, La Biennale revealed the lineup for the 2024 Venice Film Festival, which will commence on 28^th August 2024. The festival is set to open with the much-anticipated premiere of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, the sequel to the 1988 classic. The original stars – Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara – are returning to continue the story 36 years later, promising to deliver another round of supernatural mischief and dark humour.

Competition

At the press conference, Barbera, the director of the festival, commenced the official competition announcements by introducing The Room Next Door by Pedro Almodóvar. This marks Almodóvar’s first film in English and features an incredible cast including Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, John Turturro and Alessandro Nivola. The film was edited quickly to ensure its readiness for Venice; The Brutalist by Brady Corbet, shot and projected in 70mm, features a stellar cast including Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, and Stacy Martin. It tells the story of a fictional Hungarian Jewish architect who emigrates to the USA and struggles with poverty until a patron offers him a monumental project. The narrative echoes The Fountainhead, in which an architect (Gary Cooper) battles conservatism, a theme also explored in this film.

A standout in the lineup is Queer by Luca Guadagnino, featuring an impressive cast including Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Jason Schwartzman, and Lesley Manville. The film was shot at Cinecittà, where a 1950s Mexico City neighbourhood was meticulously recreated, with additional scenes filmed in Sicily and Mexico.

Further films announced include Iddu (Sicilian Letters) by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, starring Elio Germano and Toni Servillo; Leurs Enfants Après Eux by Ludovic Boukherma and Zoran Boukherma; Campo di Battaglia by Gianni Amelio; and Vermiglio by Maura Delpero; Kjærlighet (Love) by Dag Johan Haugerud, the third part of a trilogy that analyses sexual behaviors in contrast with social conventions. Jouer Avec le Feu (The Quiet Son) by sisters Delphine and Muriel Coulin, starring Vincent Lindon.

The lineup further extends with the much-anticipated Joker: Folie à Deux by Todd Phillips, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. The plot remains enigmatic, even with trailer hints showing Phoenix’s character encountering Gaga’s in a criminal asylum, promising yet another riveting performance from Phoenix. Babygirl by Halina Reijn, an erotic thriller from A24, stars Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas, and Sophie Wilde. It centres on a manager whose BDSM relationship with an apprentice threatens her career and family life.

The Order by Justin Kurzel, featuring Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, and Tye Sheridan; Maria by Pablo Larraín, another biographical portrait similar to his previous works Jackie and Neruda, this time focusing on Maria Callas, starring Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, and Alba Rohrwacher; Trois Amies by Emmanuel Mouret, starring Camille Cottin; April by Dea Kulumbegashvili; and Kill the Jockey by Luis Ortega; Ainda Estou Aqui (I’m Still Here) by Walter Salles tells the poignant story of a wife researching the disappearance of her husband, a former socialist Brazilian MP, who was made to vanish by the police during the dictatorship in the early 70s. Diva Futura by Giulia Louise Steigerwalt; Harvest by Athina Rachel Tsangari, which is shot in grainy 16mm and stars Caleb Landry Jones, Harry Melling, and Rosy McEwen; and Qing Chun Gui (Youth – Homecoming) by Wang Bing.

Orizzonti

The conference began with the Orizzonti section, starting with Nonostante by renowned Roman actor in Valerio Mastandrea, who is also taking on directorial duties. This was followed by Quiet Life directed by Alexandros Avranas, known for Miss Violence; Mon Inséparable by Anne-Sophie Bailly; Aïcha by Mehdy Barsaoui; Yin’Ād ‘Alīku (Happy Holidays) by Scandar Copti, a Palestinian director of Israeli nationality, which explores the life of an Arab family in Israel; and Familia by Francesco Constabile.

The Orizzonti lineup continues with Hemme Nin Öldügü Günlerden Biri (One of Those Days When Hemme Dies) by Murat Firatoglu; Familiar Touch by Sarah Friedland in her feature-length debut; Marco by Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi; Carissa by Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar from South Africa; Wishing on a Star by Péter Kerekes; the documentary Mistress Dispeller by Chinese-American filmmaker Elizabeth Lo; Anul Nou Care N-A Fost (The New Year That Never Came) by Bogdan Muresanu; Pooja, Sir by Nepalese director Deepak Rauniyar, known for White Sun; and Al Klavim Veanashim (Of Dogs and Men) by Israeli director Dani Rosenberg; documentary Pavements by Alex Ross Perry; Happyend by Neo Sora; L’Attachement by Carine Tardieu starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi; and finally coming-of-age story Diciannove (Nineteen) by Giovanni Tortorici.

Orizzonti Extra

The Orizzonti Extra section opens with September 5 by Tim Fehlbaum, starring Peter Sarsgaard and Ben Chaplin. The film delves into the tragic events of the 1972 Munich Olympics, exploring how it was broadcast live on TV for the first time through a sports channel in the USA. This unprecedented situation forced the sports channel operators to use 16mm cameras, as no external cameras were allowed. They had to quickly develop the footage, managing to broadcast it live within 20 minutes, marking a significant moment in television history. The lineup continues with Vittoria by Alessandro Caligoli and Casey Kauffman; Le Mohican by Frédéric Farucci; Al Bahs An Manfaz I Khoroug Al Sayed Rambo (Seeking Haven For Mr Rambo) by Egyptian director Khaled Mansour; La Storia del Frank e della Nina by Paola Randi; Shahed (The Witness) by Nader Saeivar; Czech story After Party by Vojtěch Strakatý; Edge of Night by Türker Süer; King Ivory by John Swab starring Ben Foster, Melissa Leo and Ritchie Coster.

Out of Competition: Fiction

This section opens, as previously announced, with Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, and will close with the post-WWII supernatural thriller L’Orto Americano by Pupi Avati. Also featured in this section are Il Tempo Che Ci Vuole by Francesca Comencini; Phantosmia by Lav Diaz, who won the Golden Lion in 2016 with The Woman Who Left; Maldoror by Fabrice du Welz, which dramatises a media-publicised operation against a notorious sex offender in Belgium during the 90s, culminating in a rogue agent’s quest to apprehend the culprits; Broken Rage by Takeshi Kitano; Baby Invasion by Harmony Korine, which explores the disturbing impact of violent video game aesthetics; Cloud by Kurosawa Kiyoshi; Finalement by Claude Lelouch; and Wolfs by Jon Watts, starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney. Additionally, the section features two shorts: Se Posso Permettermi Capitolo II by Marco Bellocchio and Allégorie Citadine by Alice Rohrwacher and JR.

Out of Competition: Series

Barbera introduces the Series out of competition, emphasising the contrast between the trend of increasingly brief video content on platforms like TikTok and YouTube, and filmmakers’ exploration of extended narratives in series. This category showcases series that fully embrace their length, running between 5 and 8 hours. Featured in this category are Disclaimer by Alfonso Cuarón for Apple TV+, starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen and Lesley Manville; Los Años Nuevos by Rodrigo Sorogoyen del Amo, Sandra Romero, and David Martín de los Santos; Familier Som Vores (Families Like Ours) by Thomas Vinterberg; and M – Il Figlio Del Secolo by Joe Wright.

Out of Competition: Special Screenings

The Special Screenings out of competition feature Leopardi Il Poeta dell’Infinito by Sergio Rubini; Master and Commander (2003) by Peter Weir, which will be shown in honour of his Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement; and the short film Beauty is Not a Sin by Nicolas Winding Refn.

Out of Competition: Non-Fiction

The Non-fiction section out of competition features a compelling lineup: One to One: John & Yoko by Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards; Apocalipse Nos Trópicos (Apocalypse in the Tropics) by Petra Costa; Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari by Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti; Why War by Amos Gitai, starring Irene Jacobs; 2073 by Asif Kapadia, starring Samantha Morton and Naomi Ackie; Separated by Errol Morris; Israel Palestina på Svensk TV 1958-1989 by Göran Hugo Olsson, a summary of the media’s portrayal of the Israel-Palestine conflict aiming for objectivity; Russians at War by young Russian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova, who spent a year unofficially embedded with medics and paramedics to document the war. After completing her project, she had to flee to Canada and France. In dialogue with Russians at War, the festival features Pisni Zemli, Shcho Povilno (Songs of Slow Burning Earth) by young Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba, offering a perspective from the Ukrainian side a year into the conflict; Twst / Things We Said Today by Andrei Ujica; and Riefenstahl by Andres Veiel.

Venice is the world’s oldest film festival, renowned for its unique commitment to artistic excellence and also for the glamour of movie celebrities descending upon the lagoon city for ten days. The festival has increasingly become a crucial launching pad for the Oscars, strategically positioning films at the forefront of the awards season.

Filippo L’Astorina, the Editor

For further information about the Venice Film festival 2024 and to check out the programme visit La Biennale’s website here.

Watch the trailer for Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice here: