Venice Film Festival opens with George Clooney honor
The 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival will open on Wednesday with a Lifetime Achievement Award for actor George Clooney and a lineup featuring some of the biggest names in cinema, DPA reports.
The 65-year-old Hollywood star will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement during the opening ceremony at 7 p.m. local time (5 p.m. GMT). Actress Laura Dern will deliver the tribute speech. George Clooney and Laura Dern starred together in Jay Kelly, which premiered in Venice last year, CE Report quotes AGERPRES.
Danny Boyle’s film Ink has been selected as the festival’s opening film. The British filmmaker is known for movies including Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire. The film tells the story of how Rupert Murdoch and Larry Lamb transformed The Sun newspaper into a driving force in British tabloid journalism. It is one of 21 films competing for the festival’s top prize, the Golden Lion.
Among the most anticipated productions is the premiere of Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson as real-life journalist Chris Hansen. Hansen’s NBC series To Catch a Predator used hidden cameras to confront suspected sex offenders, turning the encounters into controversial television programs.
Actresses Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem will also portray a married couple in Bunker, a film about an architect hired by a billionaire tech mogul to build an underground shelter to survive the end of the world.
Liam and Noel Gallagher are also expected to attend during the festival’s 11-day run for the premiere of Don’t Look Back in Anger, a documentary about the reunion of Oasis.
The war in Gaza will also feature prominently, with Naza, directed by two of the filmmakers behind the Oscar-winning No Other Land, set to be screened at the festival.
After some hesitation, the festival will hold a press conference with the jury before the official opening. The traditional event had not initially been included in the schedule, prompting irritation and criticism among festival participants and speculation that the decision was linked to politically charged press conferences at the opening of recent editions. Festival organizers denied this, citing a scheduling issue. A jury press conference was later added to the program for Wednesday at noon.
Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal is chairing this year’s jury.
Last year, American director Jim Jarmusch was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Film for Father Mother Sister Brother.
Photo: Chat GPT
