Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga, George Clooney, Brad Pitt… The Venice Film Festival announces its XXL casting

A shower of stars is expected from August 28 to September 7 at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, whose program was unveiled Tuesday.

The biggest American stars will meet in Venice at the end of August. Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Nicole Kidman are invited to the 81st Venice Film Festival, which will be held from August 28 to September 7, chaired by actress Isabelle Huppert.

The lineup, unveiled Tuesday, July 23, includes 21 films in total, Mostra artistic director Alberto Barbera announced during a streaming presentation. They will be in the running to win the prestigious Golden Lion for best film.

Among the most anticipated films is Joker: Madness for Two by Todd Phillips. The director returns behind the camera for the sequel to Jokerstill with Joaquin Phoenix in the title role, this time alongside Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn.

One of the most scrutinized red carpets will undoubtedly be the presentation of Mariawhere Angelina Jolie plays the famous singer Maria Callas during the last days of her life in Paris. The two friends George Clooney and Brad Pitt will also set the Lido alight, but out of competition with Wolfs by Jon Watts.

The Room Next Doorthe new feature film by Spanish maestro Pedro Almodóvar and his first film shot in English in New York, will be in competition with Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore and John Turturro on the bill.

Australian star Nicole Kidman plays the lead role in Babygirlan erotic thriller by Halina Reijn about a woman dissatisfied with her marital relationship who embarks on a perilous sadomasochistic relationship.

As for British actor Jude Law, he will headline The Order by Australian Justin Kurzel, playing an FBI agent immersed in white supremacist circles in the 1980s.

Three French films were selected. Their children after them by twins Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma, an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Nicolas Mathieu, which won the Prix Goncourt in 2018. Play with firethird opus of the sisters Delphine and Muriel Coulin with Vincent Lindon and Benjamin Voisin. Finally, the film Three friends by Emmanuel Mouret focuses on three women whose romantic relationships intertwine. Claude Lelouch will present out of competition Eventuallywith Kad Merad, Elsa Zylberstein, Michel Boujenah and Sandrine Bonnaire

Five Italian films are in the running, including Queerthe last Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name), based on a novel by William Burroughs with Daniel Craig (James Bond) in a role judged by Alberto Barbera as “the interpretation of his life“.

Elio Germano, Barbara Bobulova and Toni Servillo star in Iddu by Fabio Grassadoni and Antonio Piazza, loosely inspired by the long escape of Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, arrested in January 2023 and died in prison a few months after his arrest.

The 81st Mostra will also mark the return of Brazilian Walter Salles, twelve years after his last film, with I’m Still Herebased on a book telling the true story of a woman searching for her husband, a member of parliament, who was kidnapped by the Brazilian military during the dictatorship.

In addition to the Golden Lion, the jury will have the delicate task of awarding on September 7 the Silver Lion-Grand Jury Prize, the Silver Lion-Best Director Prize, the prizes for best male and female performance and the prize for best screenplay.

The oldest film festival will open on August 28 with the out-of-competition screening of Beetlejuice Beetlejuicethe sequel to Tim Burton’s iconic film released in 1988. An opening night that also promises a beautiful red carpet with the American actor Michael Keaton, who at 72 years old takes on the title role of the grimacing demon, surrounded in particular by Winona Ryder, Willem Dafoe and Monica Bellucci.