Rebecca Ford: It’s fair to say there was more anticipation for this year’s festival lineup announcements than there is in most years, due to many questions about how the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes might affect turnout this fall. It wasn’t a great sign when Venice’s already announced opening film—Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, starring Zendaya—backed out of the festival last week. Would that mean that other distributors would follow suit, holding their films for after the strikes have been resolved?
But now that both the Venice and Toronto Film Festival lineups have come out, I think we’re all breathing a sigh of relief, as we discuss on this week’s episode of Little Gold Men. A lot of our most anticipated films have landed on lineups—so even if the stars can’t be there, most studios seem to be moving forward with their planned fall festival debuts. What stood out to you the most about Venice, which you’ll attend, Richard?
Richard Lawson: Even without American movie stars on the red carpet this year (beyond maybe those promoting a beauty or fashion brand, rather than a movie), this year’s Venice is an array of bold names. They’re mostly members of a union that did reach a deal with the AMPTP: the Directors Guild. Just look at this lineup! David Fincher, Michael Mann, Sofia Coppola, Ava DuVernay, Yorgos Lanthimos, Richard Linklater, William Friedkin, and Pablo Larraín are all premiering new films on the Lido. Which is to say nothing of Bradley Cooper, who will be debuting his second feature, the Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, five years after A Star Is Born opened to raves at Venice. (And to say nothing of Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, and Luc Besson, who have films on the slate too.)
My guess is that Cooper, who also cowrote and stars in his film, won’t appear at the festival in a show of support for two of his unions. But Maestro, from Netflix, still promises to be one of the big premieres of Venice—or any other fall festival. So, too, could be Fincher’s The Killer, with Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton; Coppola’s accidental Elvis companion piece, Priscilla; and Mann’s Ferrari. I know less about DuVernay’s film, Origin, which is inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, and about Linklater’s film, which is called Hit Man, a title that suggests some kind of . . . action movie? Which would be a swerve for that master of mellow.
Venice has somehow (for the time being, anyway) found a way to make their festival feel big even with the likely absence of actors—and the absence of a few massive films that were rumored to be bowing there, Ridley Scott’s Napoleon and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part 2 chief among them. I am finding myself suddenly cautiously optimistic about a festival that did, just last week, feel pretty tenuous.
Toronto also has big stuff to offer, David. What do you think are that festival’s biggest programming coups?
David Canfield: TIFF’s main attraction this year appears to be in the unproven filmmaker category—which is to say, the festival was still able to court big stars who happen to have directed movies. Tony Goldwyn (Ezra), Michael Keaton (Knox Goes Away), Kristin Scott Thomas (North Star), Chris Pine (Poolman), Viggo Mortensen (The Dead Don’t Hurt), Ethan Hawke (Wildcat), and Anna Kendrick (Woman of the Hour) all helmed films that will world premiere in Toronto, and all titles are up for sale (Poolman has some rights available), meaning that any big hits—and potential awards plays—could make for a particularly exciting moment this season. Since a distributor isn’t attached to most of these films, one presumes at least a handful of these directors will also attend to support their films at the beginning of their journeys. That’s huge for TIFF, a major event on the annual film calendar that usually sees celebrities from all over the world attend.
That is not happening this year, unless the SAG-AFTRA strike miraculously resolves itself. And that’s a shame for some of these other TIFF premieres, which are major gets and likely pivotal launch points for Oscar campaigns. We can talk about the films seemingly hitting other festivals beforehand, particularly Telluride, but let’s stay for a moment on the world premieres. TIFF will be launching starry new films from Taika Waititi (Next Goal Wins), Craig Gillespie (Dumb Money), and David Yates (Pain Hustlers). TIFF is relatively mainstream, meaning when a movie hits there, it tends to portend a significant theatrical life. If the reviews are also good, that can make for a very potent awards combination.