Todd Phillips’ sequel “Joker: Folie a Deux,” Pedro Almodovar’s English-language debut “The Room Next Door” and Luca Guadagnino’s William Burroughs adaptation “Queer” will have their world premieres in competition at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival, Venice organizers announced in a press conference on Tuesday.
Other films in the lineup include Jon Watts’ “Wolfs,” with Brad Pitt and George Clooney; Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” with Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce; Justin Kurzel’s political thriller “The Order,” with Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult; Pablo Larrain’s film about opera singer Maria Callas, “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie; Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl,” with Nicole Kidman;
The festival previously announced that Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” will serve as the opening-night film.
While 21 films were announced as part of the main competition, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and “Wolfs” will screen out of competition, along with Harmony Korine’s “Baby Invasion,” Claude Lelouch’s “Finalement” and short films from Marco Bellocchio and the team of Alice Rohrwacher and JR.
Out-of-competition documentaries include Asif Kapadia’s “2073,” Errol Morris’ “Separated” and two films connected to the Beatles, Kevin Macdonald and John Rice-Edwards’ “One to One: John & Yoko” and Andrei Ujica’s “Twst/Things We Said Today.”
A section devoted to TV series will include new multi-part work from Alfonso Cuaron, Joe Wright and Thomas Vinterberg.
Venice is the first of the back-to-back-to-back festivals that will essentially launch movie awards season, along with the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals. While in earlier years its films were generally artier and less mainstream than the movies that appealed to Oscar voters, five of the last seven Golden Lion winners at Venice have gone on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” was honored by both the Venice jury and Oscar voters last year, and before that Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” and Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water.”
Last year, “Poor Things” and “Maestro” were the two Venice films that went on to be nominated for Best Picture, while four others – “El Conde,” “Priscilla,” “Society of the Snow” and the short “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” – were Oscar-nominated in other categories.
This year’s Venice jury will be headed by actress Isabelle Huppert and will also include directors James Gray, Andrew Haigh, Agnieszka Holland, Kleber Mendonca Filho, Abderrahmane Sissako, Giuseppe Tornatore and Julia von Heinz, along with actress Zhang Ziyi.
The Venice Film Festival will begin on Aug. 28 and end on Sept. 7.
The lineup:
Main Competition
“The Room Next Door,” Pedro Almodovar
“Campo di Battaglia,” Gianni Amelio
“Leurs Enfants Apres Eux,” Ludovic Boukherma, Zoran Boukherma
“The Brutalist,” Brady Corbet
“The Quiet Son,” Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin
“Vermiglio,” Maura Delpero
“Iddu (Sicilian Letters),” Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza
“Queer,” Luca Guadagnino
“Love,” Dag Johan Haugerud
“April,” Dea Kulumbegashvili
“The Order,” Justin Kurzel
“Maria,” Pablo Larrain
“Trois Amies,” Emmanuel Mouret
“Kill the Jockey,” Luis Ortega
“Joker: Folie a Deux,” Todd Phillips
“Babygirl,” Halina Reijn
“I’m Still Here,” Walter Salles
“Diva Futura,” Giulia Louse Steigerwalt
“Harvest,” Athina Rachel Tsangari
“Youth – Homecoming,” Wang Bing
“Stranger Eyes,” Yeo Siew Hua
Out of Competition – Fiction
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Tim Burton (opening film)
“L’Orto Americano,” Pupi Avati (closing film)
“Il Tempo che ci Vuole,” Francesca Comencini
“Phantosmia,” Lav Diaz
“Maldoror,” Fabrice du Welz
“Broken Rage,” Takeshi Kitano
“Baby Invasion,” Harmony Korine
“Cloud,” Kurosawa Kiyoshi
“Finalement,” Claude Lelouch
“Wolfs,” Jon Watts
“Se Posso Permettermi Capitolo II,” Marco Bellocchio (short film)
“Allegorie Citadine,” Alice Rohrwacher,