US megastar Julia Roberts is to make her debut at the Venice Film Festival this year, which will also feature Jude Law playing Russian leader Vladimir Putin and a hard-hitting film about Gaza.
Roberts is one of many A-listers set to appear at the increasingly influential Venice film extravaganza from late August for the premiere of her latest movie, the Amazon-produced “After the Hunt”.
Directed by Italy’s Luca Guadagnino, a Venice regular, it tells the story of a sexual assault case at a prestigious American university and will run outside the main film competition, according to the festival’s artistic director, Alberto Barbera.
“It is the first time that Julia Roberts will walk the red carpet of the Venice Film Festival so we’re very happy to have her,” Barbera told reporters in a presentation of the August 27-September 9 line up.
The main film category, where features compete for the prestigious Golden Lion for best film, includes a host of star-packed productions including “The Wizard of the Kremlin” by Olivier Assayas.
The movie is an adaptation by French director Assayas of the best-selling book by Giuliano da Empoli on Putin’s rise, featuring British actor Law as the Kremlin strongman.
Other high-profile, in-competition movies selected by the festival include the latest from American Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow titled “A House of Dynamite” and “Father Mother Sister Brother” by Jim Jarmusch, starring Adam Driver and Cate Blanchett.
Benny Safdie’s film about a 1990s wrestling champion “The Smashing Machine” has “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson in the lead role alongside Emily Blunt, who delivers a “memorable performance” as his wife, according to Barbera.
A much-discussed new interpretation of “Frankenstein” by Guillermo del Toro has also been selected, with Barbera saying that producer Netflix “has not skimped on the means made available to del Toro’s imagination”.
American director Noah Baumbach returns with “Jay Kelly”, a comedy co-written with his wife Greta Gerwig, featuring an A-list cast that includes George Clooney playing an actor with an identity crisis.
— Feature on Gaza —
Alongside five Italian films and some of Hollywood’s finest, festival organisers have also selected a feature about the war in Gaza in what promises to be the most overtly political offering within the main competition.
“The Voice of Hind Rajab”, by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, reconstructs the death of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed last year by Israeli forces.
She and her family were fleeing an Israeli offensive in Gaza City in January 2024 when their vehicle came under attack.
In a case that led to international outrage, she could be heard pleading for help in a desperate phone call to the Red Crescent after she was left as the sole survivor in the badly damaged car.
She and two Red Crescent workers who went to find her were later found dead.
Barbera said it was one of the films that “will have most of an impact on audiences”, while adding that he hoped there would be no “controversy”.
“I’m moved when I think of the movie,” he said, adding that Ben Hania reproduced the authentic phone calls and used interviews with the girl’s mother and uncle.
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