Films Expected To Premiere At The 83rd Venice Film Festival

Being one of the buzziest film festivals in the world for auteur filmmaking, it’s no wonder that everyone is gearing up to be following the whir around this festival. With less than three months left until launch, it’s safe to begin guessing what the lineup could be looking like.

With Variety reporting today that features such as David Fincher’s The Adventures of Cliff Booth and Tom Ford’s Cry to Heaven may not be getting in, there are still a lot of other projects to be looking forward to. Check below for the list of films expected to premiere:

‘The Social Reckoning’ (dir. Aaron Sorkin)

This biographical thriller, which is considered a companion piece to The Social Network, follows Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg going through the 2021 whistleblower controversy, famously known as The Facebook Files, after Frances Haugen (here played by Mikey Madison), a young Facebook engineer, had enlisted the help of Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), a Wall Street Journal reporter, to go on a dangerous journey that ends up blowing the whistle on the social network’s most guarded secrets, unveiling dangerous practices by the company. A little dissimilar to The Social Network, this one is not just written by Aaron Sorkin but also directed by him.

‘Bunker’ (dir. Florian Zeller)

Bunker is a thriller that features Bardem plays an architect who accepts a morally ambiguous project, which is that he’ll be building a survivalist bunker for a tech billionaire, sooner or later, his wife (Penelope Cruz) begins to question their marriage after 17 years together. The film also stars Patrick Schwarzenegger, Paul Dano and Stephen Graham. Zeller is known for previously directing The Father and The Son.

‘Here Comes The Flood’ (dir. Fernando Meirelles)

Directed by the Oscar-nominee talent behind City of God, Meirelles’ upcoming crime thriller stars Denzel Washington, Robert Pattinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones in an unconventional heist movie about three people locked in a deadly game of cons and double crosses.

‘The Echo Chamber’ (dir. Andrea Pallaoro)

This romantic drama, which is based on an unfinished script by Bernardo Bertolucci, follows Leo and Ava who are “drifting apart, and searching for their way back”, with the premise of the film revolving around “a man, a woman and an apartment where an affair takes place”. Luca Marinelli, Alicia Vikander and Susan Sarandon star in the film.

‘Wild Horse Nine’ (dir. Martin McDonagh)

McDonagh’s comedic CIA thriller follows Chris and Lee, who before the 1973 Chilean coup, are dispatched from Santiago to Easter Island by their bureau chief, MJ. Amongst the Island’s iconic statues, and as the longtime partners wrestle with their dark pasts and present conspiracies, Chris’s newfound bond with a pair of rebellious students threatens to send everyone’s trip to this remote paradise sideways. Starring John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi and Parker Posey.

‘Out of this World’ (dir. Albert Serra)

Serra’s upcoming Out of this World could be one of the most likely debuts for this year’s Venice Film Festival despite there being no news on it even though filming had wrapped for it since last September. The film follows Riley Keough and F. Murray Abraham as part of an American delegation travelling to Russia in the midst of the Ukrainian war to try to find a solution to an economic dispute.

‘Bucking Fastard’ (dir. Werner Herzog)

Herzog makes his return following 2019’s Family Romance, LLC with Bucking Fastard which follows real-life sisters, Kate and Rooney Mara, and is inspired by the true story of the two identical twin sisters, Freda and Greta Chaplin, who gained notoriety in the 1980s for having a restraining order put on them by a man they both became involved with. This time, the film follows Jean and Joan Holbrooke instead, they’re going to be in search of an imaginary land where true love is possible, start digging a tunnel through a mountain range.

‘Sense and Sensibility’ (dir. Georgia Oakley)

Scheduled to release later this year on October 16th, it’s possible that Georgia Oakley’s film adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel could be getting an out-of-competition premiere. The film stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and George MacKay as Elinor Dashwood and Edward Ferrars.

‘Trick’ (dir. Mario Martone)

I do think that Martone’s Trick, starring Toni Servillo, is one of the most likely premieres for this year’s Venice Film Festival due to the fact that Martone is one of Italy’s most acclaimed directors and his history with the festival throughout his career is extensive. The film follows illustrator Daniele Mallarico who travels to Naples to look after his four-year-old grand-son while his daughter is away for a few days. What begins as a simple babysitting job turns into a subtle psychological duel, as the child’s boundless imagination slowly unsettles him. Trapped together in the apartment, Daniele is forced to confront something far more disturbing than a mischievous child: the fear of aging and the loss of creativity. Through this strange encounter, he may rediscover the power of imagination he thought he had lost.

‘A Long Winter’ (dir. Andrew Haigh)

A past jury member, Andrew Haigh, could also be dropping off his upcoming drama to premiere. The film, which stars Fred Hechinger, Caitriona Balfe, Kit Connor, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, follows a family preparing for the long winter ahead as they’re high in the mountains and autumn is coming to an end.

‘Jack of Spades’ (dir. Joel Coen)

One of my biggest predictions for this year’s Venice Film Festival is Jack of Spades, not just because of the fact it’s releasing later this year or because of the history between the Coen Brothers and the festival. There’s just something about this film that screams Venice premiere. The gothic mystery which unfolds in the atmospheric setting of 1880s Scotland stars Josh O’Connor, Frances McDormand and Lesley Manville.

‘The Hole’ (dir. Kim Jee-woon)

Possibly another out-of-competition pick, but it’s possible that we may be seeing Kim Jee-woon’s The Hole premiering this year, the director has had a fair piece of history with the festival overall. The film follows a professor is cared for by his mother-in-law after a tragic accident where he soon uncovers disturbing secrets about his marriage and past, jeopardizing his recovery. Starring Theo James and Hoyeon.

‘Look Back’ (dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda)

The second Kore-eda film to release this year, is already hitting theaters in Japan on the 11th of September, but it’s very possible it could be premiering at the Venice Film Festival, the film is a live-action film adaptation of 2024’s Look Back which was originally written by Tatsuki Fujimoto.

Overall, the lineup for the festival is yet to be revealed next month on the 23rd so hopefully one does end up hearing about titles they didn’t expect being part of the lineup. A film that would be fitting enough for Venice this year would be Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger, starring Tom Cruise, but it’s difficult to tell if Warner Bros. will be making that kind of push for the film or not after how badly received Joker: Folie à Deux after its premiere at the festival.

At the moment it does also seem a little difficult to tell who could be securing the Golden Lion this year, but only time will be able to tell, moreover, the jury president for the 83rd Venice Film Festival is actress/director Maggie Gyllenhaal.

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