World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
Venice opens its 83rd edition with Danny Boyle’s Ink amid the festival’s most politically charged year yet and we enter the countdown to the LFF.
Morning all — another very slow news day in the movie business… which in some ways is good, because we don’t want to lose another legend after Dolly and Tim.
Venice opens amid its most political edition in years: The 83rd Venice Film Festival officially opens today with Danny Boyle’s Ink, a dramatisation of Rupert Murdoch’s rise to power at The Sun, starring Guy Pearce, Jack O’Connell and Claire Foy. Now there’s an acting line-up to intrigue! Here’s some the key talking points to look out for in the coming days:
- Laura Dern is also set to honour (my friend*) George Clooney as he collects his Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, with Ellen Burstyn receiving the same honour later in the festival’s 11-day run.
- Artistic director Alberto Barbera has been upfront that this is Venice’s “most political” lineup in recent memory, tackling war, Palestine, immigration and shrinking political freedoms — and the tension arrived before a single premiere, with Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux and dozens of others signing an open letter demanding the festival take “concrete action” in support of Palestine.
- Maggie Gyllenhaal chairs the main competition jury, joined by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, Hong Kong’s Johnnie To and Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat among others, with the Golden Lion announced on the 12th.
Expect this newsletter’s coverage to live on the Lido for the next fortnight.
(* Not really my friend… but he directed me in “The Boys in the Boat“, so that makes us close pals doesn’t it?)
More insight into the London Film Festival line up: With the LFF starting on October 7th, I’ll be up in London later today for a press reveal of more details on the highlights of this year’s event. We already know the topper and the tailer (Simon Stone’s Elsinore and Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut respectively), but I’ll report back tomorrow on the LFF films that look the most intriguing to me.
That’s all for today.
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