Festivals

While today the gala night audience at the Sala Grande broke in seemingly never-ending applause after the screening of Todd Field’s Tár at the Venice Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival announced the line-up of its 49th edition. It is no coincidence that the Telluride selection also includes Tár, the well-received psychological drama of a brilliant conductor and composer played by Cate Blanchett.

(Conclusion of a two-part series on women filmmakers in the 79th Venice International Film Festival)   Horizons (Orizzonti) Four films by three women filmmakers made it to the 18-film slate of Horizons or just 22% are female directors.   The Happiest Man in the World – Teona Strugar Mitevska   Teona Strugar Mitevska is a Macedonian director and screenwriter who began her career as an art director.

The 79th Venice Film Festival (more exactly “Mostra dell'Arte Cinematografica” in Italian) will open in the splendid setting of Venice, organized by the Venice Biennale and once again directed by Alberto Barbera. The legendary festival will take place on the Lido of Venice from August 31 to September 10, 2022.

“The impetus to make this film was better to understand the consequences and complexities of the theme of abandonment, which I have dealt with in my own life, and which is something that I recognize is at the center of most of my creative explorations,” says Italian-born director and writer Andrea Pallaoro, talking about his latest film, Monica, about to be seen in competition at the Venice Film Festival. Pallaoro's work as a filmmaker focuses primarily on the exploration of women's feelings and emotional journeys.

At the beginning of the lockdown for covid in 2020, Italian director/writer/artist Cecilia Miniucchi asked Bob Odenkirk in the middle of a forced break from the shooting of Better Call Saul's last season, “Bob Odenkirk, how about we do something while locked up in our respective homes?” Odenkirk accepted the offer without hesitation and that was how Worlds Apart was born, a feature film shot entirely remotely, each member of the cast, the sparse crew and the director working from their Los Angeles home. Something unprecedented.

(First of a two-part series on the women filmmakers in the 79th Venice International Film Festival) Filmmaking is such a competitive field that we herald the women who share their cinematic vision without any excuses and qualms. These are women who we boldly call “film daredevils” as they juggle homemaking, motherhood, marriage, relationships, and social expectations and still march on and shine in the time-demanding task or labor of love called “filmmaking.

Alberto Barbera is striking a warning note: “I fear that Nuclear, the new documentary by Oliver Stone, will spark controversy. But that's okay, God forbid we should deny them.

Padre Pio has performed a posthumous miracle through the actor Shia LaBeouf, who portrays him in the eponymous film by Abel Ferrara. The actor converted to Catholicism during the making of the movie.