The Venice Film Festival has announced the line-up for its 78th event, which kicks off in September.
The festival will open with Pedro Almodovar's drama Parallel Mothers, which will debut in the competition, running for the top prize, the Golden Lion. The official line-up also includes the highly awaited world premiere of Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi Dune, which was partly shot in Abu Dhabi and Jordan and stars Timothee Chalamet.
Other high-profile titles include Pablo Larrain’s Spencer; Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand Of God; Michel Franco’s Sundown; Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter; Gaston Duprat and Mariano Cohn’s Official Competition; Jane Campion’s The Power Of The Dog; Stephane Brize’s Un autre monde; and Ana Lily Amirpour’s Mona Lisa And The Blood Moon.
From the Arab world, three films have been selected. Egyptian director Mohamed Diab's coming feature Amira, set in Palestine, has been selected in the Horizons category.
Mounia Akl's Costa Brava, starring Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri (The Present, Wajib) and Oscar-nominated director and actress Nadine Labaki (Capernaum), has also been selected. It will be screened as part of the new section called Horizons Extra.
Syrian director Diana El Jeiroudi's documentary Republic of Silence will have its world premiere at the competition.
Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho will head the competition jury. Other judges are Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao, who won last year's Golden Lion for Nomadland, as well as Cynthia Erivo, Virginie Efira, Sarah Gadon, Saverio Costanzo and Alexander Nanau.
The event will run from Wednesday, September 1 until Saturday, September 11.
Full official selection for the 2021 Venice Film Festival:
Opening Night
Parallel Mothers, Pedro Almodovar (in competition)
Competition/Venezia 78
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, Ana Lily Amirpour
Un autre monde, Stephanie Brize
The Power of the Dog, Jane Campion
America Latina, Damiano D’Innocenzo and Fabio D’Innocenzo
L’evenement, Audrey Diwan
Official Competition, Gaston Duprat and Mariana Cohn
Il buco, Michelangelo Frammartino
Sundown, Michel Franco
Illusions Perdues, Xavier Giannoli
The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Spencer, Pablo Larrain
Freaks Out, Gabriele Mainetti
Qui rido io, Mario Martone
On the Job: The Missing 8, Erik Matti
Leave No Traces, Jan P. Matuszynski
Captain Volkonogov Escaped, Natasha Merkulova and Aleksey Chupov
The Card Counter, Paul Schrader
The Hand of God, Paolo Sorrentino
Reflection, Valentyn Vasyanovych
La caja, Lorenzo Vigas
Out of Competition (Fiction)
Il bambino nascosto, Roberto Ando (closing film of the festival)
Les Choses humaines, Yvan Attal
Ariaferma, Leonardo di Costanzo
Halloween Kills, David Gordon Green
La scoula cattolica, Stefano Mordini
Old Henry, Potsy Ponciroli
The Last Duel, Ridley Scott
Dune, Denis Villeneuve
Last Night in Soho, Edgar Wright
Scenes From a Marriage (Episodes 1-5), Hagai Levi
Out of Competition (Non-Fiction)
Life of Crime 1984-2020, Jon Alpert
Tranchees, Loup Bureau
Viaggio nel crepuscolo, Augusto Contento
Republic of Silence, Diana El Jeiroudi
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine
Storia di un impiegato, Roberta Lena
Django & Django, Luca Rea
Ezio Bosso. Le cose che restano, Giorgio Verdelli
Out of Competition (Special Screenings)
Le 7 giornate di Bergamo, Simona Ventura
Il cinema al tempo del Covid, Andrea Segre
Out of Competition (Short Films)
Plastic Semiotic, Radu Jude
The Night, Tsai Ming-Liang
Sad Film, Vasili
Horizons/Orizzonti
Les promesses, Thomas Kruithof
Atlantide, Yuri Ancarani
Miracle, Bogdan George Apetri
Pilgrims, Laurynas Bareisa
Il paradiso del pavone, Laura Bispuri
The Falls, Chung Mong-Hong
El hoyo en la cerca, Joaquin del Paso
Amira, Mohamed Diab
A Plein Temps, Eric Gravel
107 Mothers, Peter Kerekes
Vera Dreams of the Sea, Kaltrina Krasniqi
White Building, Kavich Neang
Anatomy of Time, Jakrawal Nilthamrong
El otro Tom, Rodrigo Pla and Laura Santullo
El Gran Movimiento, Kiro Russo
Once Upon a Time in Calcutta, Aditya Vikram Sengupta
Rhino, Oleg Sentsov
True Things About Me, Harry Wootliff
Inu-Oh, Masaaki Yuasa
Horizons/Orizzonti Extra
Land of Dreams, Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari
Costa Brava, Mounia Akl
Mama, I’m Home, Vladimir Bitokov
Ma nuit, Antoinette Boulat
La ragazza ha volato, Wilma Labate
7 Prisoners, Alexandre Moratto
The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic, Teemu Nikki
La macchina delle immagini di Alfredo C, Roland Sejko
