While last year’s Venice International Film Festival was a starry affair, the 83rd edition is lighter on blockbusters and studio tentpoles. Bigger names like Robert Pattinson, Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and the Mara sisters (on-screen together for the first time) do make an appearance, but this year’s fare leans into a lineup of respected auteurs. Werner Herzog, Martin McDonagh, Florian Zeller, Paul Schrader, and Lee Chang-dong all have new work on the Lido, and the festival is stacked with offbeat dramas that examine the pressing issues of our era. Maggie Gyllenhaal will preside over the jury, with Ellen Burstyn and George Clooney receiving lifetime-achievement Golden Lions and Luca Guadagnino picking up the festival’s Glory to the Filmmaker award before screening a seven-hour documentary. The selection has already drawn criticism for its gender imbalance, with May el-Toukhy’s Woman Unknown the lone competition title directed by a woman. Below, the films we’re most eager to see:
Primetime (Lance Oppenheim)
No modern movie star is better at picking interesting roles than Robert Pattinson, and his latest is a true swerve: the actor will portray Chris Hansen in 2006, the year To Catch a Predator graduated from a niche Dateline NBCsegment into a pop-culture phenomenon and national sensation. Oppenheim, the documentarian behind Some Kind of Heaven and HBO’s Ren Faire, makes his narrative debut with the A24 film, which will be released in theaters on September 25 and whose cast includes Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers, and Bokeem Woodbine (former NBCUniversal chief Jeff Zucker makes an appearance as himself). Hansen has weighed in on the film, calling Pattinson’s (already viral) performance “overly dramatic” but admitting his wife and kids think he does a “pretty good imitation.” The host has also purchased preshow advertising on every screen showing the film, directing audiences to his new streaming network dedicated to To Catch a Predator-style investigations.