The Most Anticipated Releases at the 2024 Venice Film Festival
The eighty-first annual Venice Film Festival sets the stage for a strong comeback for the film industry after the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.
So what’s on the menu? Raunchy dramas, nail-biting thrillers, horror comedies, and theatrical blockbusters. From the highly anticipated Joker: Folie à Deux to Tim Burton’s dark comedy Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, there is no telling that movie lovers of all different palettes will be in for a treat.
1. Queer
The thrilling adventure stars Daniel Craig as he plays an American expat in pursuit of a younger man (Drew Starkey) in 1940s Mexico. The auteur director and writer, Luca Guadagnino (Challengers), delivers a film filled with sexual desires and wavering sin as characters grapple with their sexuality.
2. Joker: Folie à Deux
Joker: Folie à Deux, directed by Todd Phillips, offers a musical sequel to the 2019 blockbuster, Joker. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, who portrays Arthur (a.k.a. Joker), a room-dwelling chaste turned psycho killer, is set to go on trial for his crimes. His character is then sent to Arkham Asylum, where he meets fellow inmate Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga), who adores Joker and is captivated by his every move.
3. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice has returned. The Deetz family is pulled back into their past and returns to their home after an unexpected misfortune. Lydia (Winona Rider) finds herself reuniting with Beetlejuice after her rebellious daughter (Jenna Ortega) discovers a portal to the underworld. This Tim Burton film brings back a sense of nostalgia and the well-loved original cast, including Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice.
4. The Brutalist
Taking place in 1947, László Toth and his wife Erzsébet (Adrian Brody and Felicity Jones) leave Europe for America to start a new life. Directed by Brady Corbet, the story involves the couple leaving behind a past of poverty and struggling with their new life in post-war America. That is until they encounter a wealthy, unknown patron who entrusts them with an architectural project.
THE BRUTALIST is an immense tower of American epic storytelling. A sweeping immigrant story standing in for countless others on the power of influence, servitude & building a lasting legacy all in pursuit of the American dream. Complex, vast & utterly mesmerizing for all three… pic.twitter.com/AQEuQTJoKf
— Matt Neglia @TIFF (@NextBestPicture) September 6, 2024
5. Babygirl
Directed by Halina Reijn, the romantic thriller entails a lustful romance between a powerful CEO (Nicole Kidman) and a much younger office intern (Harris Dickinson). Filled with unruly desire, this sultry affair ultimately leads to her risking her career and family in the process.
‘Babygirl,’ starring Nicole Kidman, ranges from silly to scary to messy to profoundly sad—and well, sexy.
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) August 26, 2024
“We accomplished one thing, and that is that we made a really hot movie,” says director Halina Reijn.
Take an early look at the film: https://t.co/eGhtAxEqia pic.twitter.com/8ow77qRIJ7
6. Maria
Transforming into the renowned opera singer Maria Callas, Angelina Jolie stars in Pablo Larraín film, set in 1977. Jolie delves into a world full of abandonment, psychological problems, and pain as she lives out Maria’s final days.
7. The Room Next Door
After years apart, two friends in their 60s reunite during unprecedented times. Pedro Almodóvar captures a tense relationship filled with resentment with none other than Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.
8. The Order
Winding the clock back to the 1980s, The Order is a thrilling docudrama that exploits the heinous crimes of a white supremacist group and their leader (portrayed by Nicholas Hoult) as they are hunted by an FBI agent (Jude Law). Director Justin Kurzel delivers an intense film that involves a grappling set of events.
Justin Kurzel’s ‘THE ORDER’ to premiere at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) July 23, 2024
Starring Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, and Tye Sheridan. pic.twitter.com/e4m5l3hC6X
9. Wolfs
After starring in Oceans 11, castmates and 90s stars Brad Pitt and George Clooney reunite in this jampacked action crime comedy directed by Jon Watts. Hired as fixers for a high-profile case, these rivaling counterparts are forced to work with one another to dispose of a body.
10. 2073
Set 49 years into the future, 2073 is a futurist documentary that touches on climate change, surveillance culture, militarized forces, and the power of wealth. Taking inspiration from Chris Marker’s 1962 featurette La Jetée, director Asif Kapadia sets the film in post-apocalyptic San Francisco, where actor, Samantha Morton, plays a mute woman who struggles to live off-grid. With the goal of the film to warn our society of a possible future, the trailer of the film states, “This is not fiction. This is not a documentary. This is a warning.”
As the eighty-first annual Venice Film Festival was held from August 28 to September 7, film lovers can clear their calendars to view the various movies as they are released in theaters and streaming platforms. For further updates and celebrity news on the festival, click here.
