Festival Circuit 2022

[yoloswegmaster]

Venice's festival director seems to be happily answering people's questions about what will be at the festival on Twitter, he just revealed that Florian Zeller's The Son will premiere there.

He also revealed that The Banshees Of Inisherin will be premering there.

On a side note, Babylon just finished post-production. Hopefully it will premiere at Venice/Telluride, just like how La La Land and First Man premiered.

[yoloswegmaster]

Lineup for this year's Venice Festival:

SpoilerShow

Official Competition:

“Il Signore delle Formiche,” Gianni Amelio
“The Whale,” Darren Aronofsky
“L’Immensita,” Emanuele Crialese
“Saint Omer,” Alice Diop
“Blonde,” Andrew Dominik
“Tár,” Todd Field
“Love Life,” Koji Fukada
“Bardo,” Alejandro González Iñárritu
“Athena,” Romain Gavras
“Bones and All,” Luca Guadagnino
“The Eternal Daughter,” Joanna Hogg
“Beyond the Wall,” Vahid Jalilvand
“The Banshees of Inisherin,” Martin McDonagh
“Argentina, 1985,” Santiago Mitre
“Chiara,” Susanna Nicchiarelli
“Monica,” Andrea Pallaoro
“No Bears,” Jafar Panahi
“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Laura Poitras
“A Couple,” Frederick Wiseman
“The Son,” Florian Zeller
“Our Ties,” Roschdy Zem
“Other People’s Children,” Rebecca Zlotowski


Out-of-Competition:

“The Hanging Sun,” Francesco Carrozzini
“When the Waves Are Gone,” Lav Diaz
“Living,” Oliver Hermanus
“Dead for a Dollar,” Walter Hill
“Call of God,” Kim Ki-duk
“Dreamin’ Wild,” Bill Pohlad
“Master Gardener,” Paul Schrader
“Siccita,” Paolo Virzi
“Pearl,” Ti West
“Don’t Worry Darling,” Olivia Wilde
“The Kingdom Exodus,” Lars von Trier
“Copenhagen Cowboy,” Nicolas Winding Refn

[knives]

A new Wiseman? And with a tantalizing title!

[diamonds]

Could it be the Sophia Tolstoy film he was working on?

He has also been working on a screenplay, partly adapted from the diaries of Sophia Tolstoy — a surprisingly contemporary portrait of a marriage, he said, “where she talks about her difficult life with the great man.” He plans to make the film with a small, quarantined crew at a house in the French countryside in the spring.

[DarkImbecile]

Some interesting out-of-competition docs/shorts too, including new work from Steve James, Oliver Stone, Sergei Losnitza, Lucretia Martel, and Sally Potter

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Could it be the Sophia Tolstoy film he was working on?

He has also been working on a screenplay, partly adapted from the diaries of Sophia Tolstoy — a surprisingly contemporary portrait of a marriage, he said, “where she talks about her difficult life with the great man.” He plans to make the film with a small, quarantined crew at a house in the French countryside in the spring.

Yes, it is. It's a monologue film with Nathalie Boutefeu, who also co-wrote the script.

[The Narrator Returns]

The Sally Potter short seems to be the deleted Chris Rock subplot from her last movie The Roads Not Taken. I hated most of what actually made it into Roads Not Taken so I can't say I'm optimistic about what she cut out.

[DarkImbecile]

Venice festival director Alberto Barbera says in this Variety article that TÁR, Bardo, and Bones and All will play Telluride as well

[DarkImbecile]

Venice festival director Alberto Barbera says in this Variety article that TÁR, Bardo, and Bones and All will play Telluride as well

Barbera also implies in this Deadline interview that Spielberg’s The Fabelmans will sneak at Telluride, addresses the inclusion of Kim Ki-duk, and says he thinks Killers of the Flower Moon won’t be ready until next year’s festival cycle

[DarkImbecile]

Toronto has made its first big wave of announcements, including world premieres of new films by Hong Sang-soo, Peter Farrelly, Tyler Perry, and Catherine Hardwicke; they'll also have new films from Sarah Polley, Sam Mendes, and Sebastián Lelio that will premiere at Telluride

Barbera also implies in this Deadline interview that Spielberg’s The Fabelmans will sneak at Telluride

Deadline has removed this language; Barbera may have misspoken

[hearthesilence]

The Sally Potter short seems to be the deleted Chris Rock subplot from her last movie The Roads Not Taken. I hated most of what actually made it into Roads Not Taken so I can't say I'm optimistic about what she cut out.

I haven't followed Potter's most recent work, but Chris Rock the comedian? Given his remake of an Eric Rohmer film and an earlier attempt to join an aborted remake of Kurosawa's High and Low, surely he must be a cinephile at heart. (When is he going to visit Criterion's closet?)

[yoloswegmaster]

Surprising to not see Blonde, The Master Gardener, White Noise, or Bardo on the list of titles at TIFF. Then again, Birdman was also rejected by TIFF, so they may just not like Innaritu.

[DarkImbecile]

Could also pop up later as the full schedule is released, though I think Blonde will be released on Netflix during the Toronto festival, so I doubt it shows up there

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Blonde hits Netflix on September 28th, ten days after TIFF closes.

[DarkImbecile]

Oh, did it get moved? I could have sworn I saw an earlier date, like the 17th. Now that I search it, I’m seeing the 23rd as well…

[Persona]

Baumbach's WHITE NOISE opening NYFF now in addition to Venice.

[Black Hat]

The least surprising news imaginable. The main slate will be predictably boring too.

[furbicide]

The TRIANGLE OF SADNESS clips have looked so terribly on the nose, it kind of reminds me of the new Kendrick Lamar record in that you have a work from someone potentially brilliant in their field but whose current mode seems to be "let's just lay everything and the kitchen sink on thick as possible" and with minimal interest in expressing things artfully or with great focus of intent. I don't know, what I've seen of TRIANGLE feels like the fall-off from FORCE MAJEURE is becoming precipitous, but I hope I am wrong. And I realize there is some personal preference at play here as bluntness in art seems to be more in fashion these days.

Finally caught up with this at the Melbourne International Film Festival last night and liked it a lot, though I can see why some Östlund fans haven’t vibed with it: he’s let go of some of his previous films’ Haneke-style provocations and ethical dilemmas and embraced pure absurdist farce with this one (someone on Letterboxd said that it was as if Adam McKay decided to direct an art film, and I think that’s about right).

One link that I’m sure others have noticed but really stood out to me is to Jacques Rozier’s The Castaways of Turtle Island. I know it’s pretty obscure, but would be surprised if Östlund hasn’t seen it and wasn’t at least partially inspired by it, because the films have a lot in common – particularly in their final acts (they even, if I recall correctly, have the exact same twist ending in their respective final scenes). It’s funny because I was wondering why that film had never received an English-language remake – it’s such rich material, and its outline is totally viable as a Hollywood comedy – so maybe this is the closest we’re going to get.

[therewillbeblus]

Interesting, though I’m glad to have forgotten the bulk of that Rozier’s second half so the twist can still surprise me!

[hearthesilence]

Main slate for the NYFF is up!

[DarkImbecile]

Navel-gazing warning: I've been restraining myself as long as possible from this most self-indulgent exercise, but with the majority of the Venice, Toronto, and New York festival lineups announced, I can no longer resist speculating about what I'll be trying to see in three weeks at the 49th Telluride Film Festival:

Very Likely Appearing at Telluride (>60% chance)
These are almost all basically confirmed by virtue of their Toronto/NYFF premiere status, barring some last-minute change of plans or error on the part of those festivals; the two exceptions are the Iñárritu and Guadagnino films, which Venice director Alberto Barbera indicated would be at Telluride but haven't been credibly confirmed otherwise. This is only 12 films, where usually there'd be 15-18 of the eventual 30ish titles confirmed by now, which points to the potential for a lot of unexpected surprises in the final program.

Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)'
Armageddon Time (James Gray)
Bardo (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
Bones and All (Luca Guadagnino)
Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Empire of Light (Sam Mendes)
Good Night Oppy (Ryan White)
Holy Spider (Ali Abassi)
One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Løve)
TÁR (Todd Field)
The Wonder (Sebastián Lelio)
Women Talking (Sarah Polley)

Possibilities (40-60% chance)
These all seem like decent possibilities, mostly due to the filmmakers' histories with the festival.

Close (Lukas Dhont)
A Compassionate Spy (Steve James)
The Pale Blue Eye (Scott Cooper)
The US and the Holocaust (Ken Burns)

Long Shots (<40% chance)
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Poitras) — the premiere status of this one at NYFF isn't clear; it's called a U.S. premiere in some places and not others, so I'll say it has a slim chance
Argentina 1985 (Santiago Mitre)
Athena (Romain Gavras)
Babylon (Damien Chazelle) — very unlikely this plays any festivals at all, but if it was going to it would probably be a sneak at Telluride given Chazelle's relationship with the festival, and it's probably the film I most want to see this year so let me have this fantasy for a few more weeks
Blonde (Andrew Dominik) — no indication it's playing anywhere except Venice yet, and the eventual schedule release for that festival should give a sense of whether it would even be a possibility
Dead for a Dollar (Walter Hill) — like Blonde and Argentina 1985, zero indication that it's playing anywhere but Venice, but I'd love to see Hill get a career recognition tribute
Living (Oliver Hermanus)
Pinocchio (Guillermo Del Toro) — supposedly this isn't going to be finished in time, but if it was I'm sure they'd scramble to get it in
She Said (Maria Schrader)

Biggest Disappointments (<5% chance)
Telluride has been known to steal premieres from other festivals at the last minute or convince studios/directors to unexpectedly screen films, so there's only the slimmest of possibilities that these will appear, which bums me out, especially given the frequent appearances of Schrader, Baumbach, and Aronofsky at this festival.

The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)
Corsage (Marie Kreutzer)
Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)
The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg)
Master Gardener (Schrader)
R.M.N. (Crisitan Mungiu) — this was my top candidate for the Crushingly Depressing Eastern European Drama I look forward to so much at this festival each year
Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund)
The Whale (Darren Aronofsky)
White Noise (Noah Baumbach)

[DarkImbecile]

The NYFF Spotlight selection, including new documentaries from Martin Scorsese, James Ivory, and Elvis Mitchell; a 50th anniversary screening of Solaris including live accompaniment of a new score; and the US premiere of Lars von Trier’s Kingdom Exodus

[therewillbeblus]

That's wild that they're going to premiere all five parts of Kingdom Exodus, I feel like festivals usually screen the first one or two episodes of most TV serials like this

[Never Cursed]

Full schedule for TIFF revealed. Damien Chazelle is giving a talk midway through the festival, so here's hoping by then the Babylon trailer will drop

[dekadetia]

That's wild that they're going to premiere all five parts of Kingdom Exodus, I feel like festivals usually screen the first one or two episodes of most TV serials like this

Indeed, TIFF has a Kingdom Exodus screening but the listed runtime is just 120 mins.