Watch minds explode as they try to wrap their heads around this impressive lineup just announced by the iconic festival on the Lido, which will also feature the first African American woman filmmaker Ava DuVernay featured in the official competition. Along with much, much more.

When all was said and done on Tuesday morning, Venice Festival Director Alberto Barbera had announced an impressive lineup of films, in Competition, Out of Competition, and in the Orizzonti section of La Biennale Cinema.

One would almost be led to believe that there isn’t a strike going on in the US, involving both the creative arm of the industry, thus paralyzing its inception, but also the stars who walk the red carpets and make a festival like Venice a success.

No, instead of anticipating the worse and playing it safe, Barbera and his team of programmers have put together a lineup of indie gems, Hollywood blockbusters and streaming greats — along with of course, diverse and exciting world cinema.

One cool, and quirky project is certainly Wes Anderson’s latest, screening just months after Asteroid City world premiered in Cannes. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is based on a tale penned by Roald Dahl, the author of Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Recently Dahl has been called out for his antisemitic remarks, during interviews mostly, and the museum dedicated to him has issued a statement, which is featured in this article on The Guardian.

Anderson’s film, his second featuring a story by Dahl after his 2009 Fantastic Mr. Fox, stars Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, along with Rupert Friend, Dev Patel and Ralph Fiennes. It is backed by Netflix — as the streaming giant recently purchased the rights to the entire catalogue of the English author’s work. For more info, check out another article in The Guardian. The film will premiere out of competition.

Roman Polanski has teamed up instead with EO filmmakers Jerzy Skolimowski and Ewa Piaskowska to write The Palace. The film depicts the story of one wild 1999 New Year’s Eve in a luxurious Swiss hotel and stars John Cleese, Luca Barbareschi, Oliver Masucci, Fanny Ardant and Mickey Rourke. In 2019, the festival took the courageous step of world premiering Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy, which not only did well with critics and audiences but also managed to walk away with a Jury Prize Silver Lion — and this was with outspoken feminist filmmaker Lucrecia Martel as head of the jury! The Palace will also premiere out of competition.

Next on the list of filmmakers some would like to see cancelled is American auteur Woody Allen, whose next film marks his very first in French. He’s of course filmed in France, as with his 2011 Midnight in Paris, but this is fully in French. Coup de Chance stars French stars Lou de Laage, Valerie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud and Niels Schneider.

So what are your thoughts about these filmmakers and their work? Should art only be made by squeaky clean artists who never did a wrong deed in their lives? Or are they allowed more leeway as artists and therefore, are almost above the law? Personally, I believe life is mostly lived in shades of grey, and so leaning on one side or the opposite one of the above statement makes it all too extreme. Artists are humans, albeit humans who transcend their banality to achieve grand things. But we cannot forget that even politicians and, let’s face it, you and me, we have all done one or two things we aren’t exactly proud of in our lives.

Among the other much-anticipated titles in the Venice Film Festival line up are also Bradley Cooper’s sophomore directorial venture Maestro, about Leonard Bernstein, which Cooper also plays in the film alongside Carey Mulligan as Bernstein’s wife Felicia Montealegre.

Ava DuVernay has the enviable, or not if you count the milestone long overdue, of being the first African American woman to compete on the Lido with her new feature, Origin, another Netflix title.

And more goodies from Netflix come in the form of the latest from Chilean director Pablo Larraín, titled El Conde which envisions what would happen if Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has survived as a vampire. The film is also in competition.

Yorgos Lanthimos is back with his highly anticipated Poor Things, starring Emma Stone as a woman brought back to life by a 19th-century scientist. The film also stars Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Jerrod Carmichael and Margaret Qualley. Also in competition.

Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla tells the King’s story from his wife’s POV, and stars Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla, with Jacob Elordi as Elvis. And Michael Mann’s previously announced title Ferrari, a biopic based on Brock Yates’ biography of Italian race car driver legend Enzo Ferrari, with Adam Driver in the — pardon my pun — driver’s seat, will also premiere on the Lido.

Also in the lineup are Michel Franco’s Memory featuring Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard and Io Capitano, by Matteo Garrone.

There are no MENA titles in the main Competition, and even in the Orizzonti, which typically features most of Middle East titles, there is slim pickings this year. The two that jump off the page are the Tunisian Behind the Mountains by Mohamed Ben Attia, which is produced by two maverick award-winning producers, Dorra Bouchoucha and Nadim Cheikhrouha and is presented by Jean Pierre et Luc Dardenne.

The other title is a collaboration between Skin Israeli filmmaker Guy Nattiv fresh off his Golda from Berlinale and Iranian actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi who has been very very busy. The film is titled Tatami and tells the true story of an Iranian Judo champion who refused to fight an Israeli competitor.

And finally, a film we can’t wait to watch is in the non competitive Orizzonti Extra and is Olmo Schnabel’s directorial debut Pet Shop Boys, which follows the affair between the impulsive Alejandro and the college-age pet store employee Jack, exploring the underbelly of New York and a romance that sends them down a rabbit hole of vice. The film stars Willem Dafoe, Jack Irv(ing) and Peter Saarsgard.

Edoardo De Angelis’ Comandante starring Italian superstar Pierfrancesco Favino was previously announced as replacing Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, which was pulled from the festival in light of the SAG-AFTRA strikes by MGM and given a much later, 2024 release. Comandante will open this year’s 80th edition of the festival, while Society of the Snow, J.A. Bayona’s survival thriller and also a Netflix will close the festival on September 9th.

Find the full line up below.

Competition

Comandante, dir: Edoardo de Angelis (opening night film)

Adagio, dir: Stefano Sollima
La Bête, dir: Bertrand Bonello
DogMan, dir: Luc Besson
El Conde, dir: Pablo Larrain
Enea, dir: Pietro Castellitto
Evil Does Not Exist, Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Ferrari, dir: Michael Mann
Finalmente L’Alba, dir: Saverio Costanzo
The Green Border, dir: Agnieszka Holland
Holly, dir: Fien Troch
Hors-Saison, dir: Stéphane Brizé
Io Capitano, dir: Matteo Garrone
The Killer, dir: David Fincher
Lubo, dir: Giorgio Diritti
Maestro, dir: Bradley Cooper
Memory, dir: Michel Franco
Origin, dir: Ava DuVernay
Poor Things, dir: Yorgos Lanthimos
Priscilla, dir: Sofia Coppola
The Promised Land, dir: Nikolaj Arcel
Die Theorie Von Allem, dir: Timm Kroger
Woman Of, dirs: Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert

Out of Competition

Fiction

Aggro Dr1ft, dir: Harmony Korine
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, dir: William Friedkin
Coup de Chance, dir: Woody Allen
Daaaaaal!, dir: Quentin Dupieux
Hit Man, dir: Richard Linklater
L’Ordine del Tempo, dir: Liliana Cavani
The Palace, dir: Roman Polanski
The Penitent, dir: Luca Barbareschi
Snow Leopard, dir: Pema Tseden
Vivants, dir: Alix Delaporte
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, dir: Wes Anderson (short)

Short

Welcome to Paradise, dir: Leonardo Di Costanzo

Non-Fiction

Amor, dir: Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri
Enzo Jannacci Vengo Anch’io, dir: Giorgio Verdelli
Frente a Guernica (Version Integrale), dirs: Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi
Hollywoodgate, dir: Ibrahim Nash’at
Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros, dir: Frederick Wiseman
Ryuichi Sakamoto Opus, dir: Neo Sora

Series

D’Argent et de Sang (episodes 1-12), dirs: Xavier Giannoli, Frederic Planchon
I Know Your Soul (episodes 1-2), dirs: Alen Drljevic, Nermin Hamzagic

Special Screening

La Parte del Leone: Una Storia della Mostra, dirs: Baptiste Etchegary, Guiseppe Bucchi

Orizzonti

En Attendant la Nuit, dir: Céline Rouzet
Behind the Mountains, dir: Mohamed Ben Attia
A Cielo Abierto, dirs: Mariana Arriaga, Santiago Arriaga
City of Wind, dir: Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir
Dormitory, dir: Nehir Tuna
El Paraiso, dir: Enrico Maria Artale
Explanation for Everything, dir: Gabor Reisz
The Featherweight, dir: Robert Kolodny
Gasoline Rainbow, dirs: Bill Ross, Turner Ross
Heartless, dirs: Nara Normande, Tiao
Hesitation Wound, dir: Selman Nacar
Housekeeping for Beginners, dir: Goran Stolevski
Invelle, dir: Simone Massi
Paradise Is Burning, dir: Mika Gustafson

Shadow of Fire, dir: Shinya Tsukamoto
The Red Suitcase, dir: Fidel Devkota

Una Sterminata Domenica, dir: Alain Perroni
Tatami, dirs: Guy Nattiv, Zar Amir Ebrahimi

Orizzonti Extra

Bota Jone, dir: Luana Bajrami
Day of the Fight, dir: Jack Huston
Felicita, dir: Micaela Ramazzotti
Forever Forever, dir: Anna Buryachkova
L’Homme d’Argile, dir: Anais Tellenne
In the Land of Saints and Sinners, dir: Robert Lorenz
Pet Shop Boys, dir: Olmo Schnabel
Stolen, dir: Karan Tejpal
The Rescue, dir: Daniela Goggi

Venice Classics

Non-Fiction

Un Altra Italia Era Possibile, Il Cinema Di Guiseppe De Santis, dir: Stefano Della Casa
Bill Douglas My Best Friend, dir: Jack Archer
Dario Argento Panico, dir: Simone Scafidi
Frank Capra: Mr America, dir: Matthew Wells
Ken Jacobs From Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art, dir: Fred Riedel
Le Film Pro-Nazi d’Hitchcock, dir: Daphne Baiwir
Landrian, dir: Ernesto Daranas Serrano
Michel Gondry Do It Yourself, dir: François Nemeta
Thank You Very Much, dir: Alex Braverman