Alberto Barbera, director of festival, says they are seeking a balance in the line-up to include films from beyond Hollywood.
Advertisement
Fashion designer Tom Ford’s “Nocturnal Animals”, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams, is also included on the shortlist, as is Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi thriller “Arrival”.
Films competing for the festival’s coveted Golden Lion prize also include American auteur Terrence Malick’s documentary “Voyage of Time” and new films from cinema heavyweights including France’s Francois Ozon (“Frantz”), Germany’s Wim Wenders (“The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez”), Serbia’s Emir Kusturica (“On the Milky Road”) and Russia’s Andrei Konchalovsky (“Paradise”).
The Light Between Oceans, the film that brought Irish actor Michael Fassbender together with Oscar victor Alicia Vikander, will also play at the festival, alongside Jackie Onassis biopic Jackie, starring Natalie Portman.
The world’s oldest film festival will open with Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land”, starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in a musical romantic comedy-drama about a jazz pianist who falls in love with an aspiring actress in Los Angeles.
Natalie Portman as USA first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in Pablo Larain’s “Jackie”.
Love will be filling the air when the Venice Film Festival kicks off on August 31. “It is not an escape from the contemporary world, it is used as a way to reflect on today’s world in a different way”. The first two episodes of Paolo Sorrentino’s miniseries The Young Pope starring Jude Law will also appear.
The victor of the Golden Lion and other prizes will be decided by a jury led by “American Beauty” director Sam Mendes.
Of the shared films, only Antoine Fuqua’s remake of The Magnificent Seven with Denzel Washington will bow at TIFF before Venice (it will play Toronto on September 8, two days before acting as Venice’s closing-night film).
Advertisement
The Magnificent Seven will premiere out of the competition, as will Mel Gibson’s Second World War drama Hacksaw Ridge and The Bleeder, starring Naomi Watts and her husband Liev Schrieber, alongside Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss.
