Venice Film Festival 2023 kicks off against backdrop of twin Hollywood strikes

With Hollywood continuing to be essentially shuttered due to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the 80th Venice Film Festival kicks off today with plenty of Oscar-contending movies but few stars on hand to help promote them on and off the red carpet. Both the Writers Guild (whose walkout enters its fifth month) and the actors’ union (on strike for nearly seven weeks) have instructed their members not to do any press for their studio movies until the work stoppages are settled. That means a potentially star-less Venice, with few major actors and filmmakers in attendance aside from those permitted by SAG-AFTRA interim agreements.

But since the show itself must go on, the festival is still featuring a decent number of premieres even as the A-listers are forced to stay away due to both union regs and lousy optics. The festival already lost its original opening-night film, “Challengers” starring Zendaya, which decided to opt out rather than have to muzzle its lead.

The Venice Fest’s artistic director Alberto Barbera underplayed the strikes’ impact somewhat in an interview with Reuters Television. “We know that some talent will not be able to attend…But some others will come because they are working in the independent films,” he said. “So everything is good. It looks very positive.”

Well, maybe not very positive. But at least there’s no active pandemic to shut everything down. That’s good news for films and directors with Academy Award aspirations, as 8 of the past 11 Best Director trophies have gone to films that debuted at Venice. That includes Damien Chazelle, this year’s jury president and whose “La La Land” launched at Venice in 2016, and Chloe Zhao, whose “Nomadland” had its world premiere at Venice during the COVID-impacted festival of 2020.

This year’s Venice Film Festival is headed by buzzworthy directorial efforts by Bradley Cooper, Yorgos Lanthimos, David Fincher, Michael Mann, Sofia Coppola, Ava DuVernay and the late William Friedkin. Perhaps the most talked-about is Cooper’s “Maestro,” the Leonard Bernstein biopic in which the actor stars alongside an already notorious prosthetic nose. It also co-stars Carey Mulligan and Sarah Silverman. Fincher’s new thriller is “The Killer,” featuring Michael Fassbender as as ruthless and unapologetic hitman. Coppola entry is “Priscilla,” featuring Cailee Spaeny as a young Priscilla Presley (in a film based on her memoir) and “Euphoria’s” Jacob Elordi as Elvis.

“Ferrari” is another high-profile world premiere happening at Venice, from Mann, a biopic about the legendary Italian sports car maker Enzo Ferrari. It stars Adam Driver as Enzo and Penelope Cruz as his wife Laura Dominica Garello Ferrari. Since “Ferrari” is an indie production, its cast has free reign via guild exemption to promote the movie at Venice and anywhere else they see fit. But no one is sure if they’ll do so, possibly sitting this one out in solidarity with their fellow actors. Driver is also notoriously press-shy in the best of times, and this isn’t.

Lanthimos (“The Favourite”) brings the world premiere of his quirky comedy “Poor Things” to the festival, starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Ramy Youssef. DuVernay’s latest feature “Origin” – an adaptation of the Isabel Wilkerson book “Caste” starring Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis – will have its premiere at the festival, making DuVernay the first African American filmmaker to compete at Venice. Wes Anderson will also have an entry at Venice, two months after the release of his feature “Asteroid City.” It’s the 37-minute short “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” a Roald Dahl story adaptation for Netflix.

Venice also isn’t shying away from courting controversy this year. It’s welcomed the latest efforts from 90-year-old Roman Polanski and 87-year-old Woody Allen as well as Luc Besson (with the premiere of his feature “Dogman”). Polanski brings “The Palace,” out of competition, while Allen, also playing out of competition, has “Coup de Chance,” his 50th feature and first in the French language. Polanski was convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977. Allen was accused of sexually assaulting his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, which he denied. Besson was cleared in June of rape charges from an actress.

If people are looking for Italy to match the vitality of the #MeToo movement in the United States, they’ll be disappointed, as festival director Barbera makes clear.

“The history of art is full of criminals who made beautiful pieces of art,” Barbera defended, “so why not Polanski? He’s one of the great masters still in activity.”

Meanwhile, Friedkin, who died August 7, will have his final film, the naval drama “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” premiere posthumously at Venice. Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Herman Wouk, it stars Kiefer Sutherland, Jake Lacy and Jason Clarke.

The Venice Film Festival opens today and runs through September 9.

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