Entertainment
Venice Film Festival opens with high-profile documentaries and awards contenders
The 83rd edition features films on topical global subjects alongside major Hollywood talent, despite criticism over female directorial representation.
The short version
- The 83rd Venice Film Festival begins Wednesday on the Lido, highlighting major Hollywood stars and awards contenders alongside topical documentaries.
- Prominent non-fiction premieres focus on subjects including Elon Musk, exile among independent Russian journalists, and the Gaza conflict.
- The festival faces renewed scrutiny over gender representation, featuring only one female director in its main competition despite a past pledge to improve diversity.
Key facts
- The 83rd Venice Film Festival starts on Wednesday on the Lido, featuring expected appearances by George Clooney, Penélope Cruz, Robert Pattinson, Rooney Mara, and Noel and Liam Gallagher.[Associated Press]
- Alex Gibney's nearly four-hour documentary on Elon Musk is scheduled to premiere at the festival.[Associated Press]
- The festival lineup includes Julia Loktev's six-hour documentary 'My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile' about displaced Russian journalists and 'NAZA,' a Gaza-focused documentary added late to the competition.[Associated Press]
- Activists with Venice4Palestine called on festival organizers to fly the Palestinian flag and end agreements with institutions tied to the Israeli government.[Associated Press]
- Only one female director, Danish-Egyptian filmmaker May El-Toukhy, is included in the festival's main competition line-up.[Associated Press]
- The single female director in competition falls short of a pledge Venice signed in 2018 targeting gender parity in competition films by 2020.[Associated Press]
What remains uncertain
- Director Alex Gibney characterized Elon Musk as a confidence man who declined to be interviewed for his documentary, while Musk publicly dismissed the film as a hit piece prior to its debut.[Associated Press]