The 79th Venice Film Festival is about a month away and the Biennale organization set cinephiles’ hearts aflutter this morning with its 2022 program. This year’s slate includes new films from Darren Aronofsky (“The Whale”), Todd Field (“TÁR”), Luca Guadaginio (“Bones & All”) Martin McDonaugh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) Alejandro G. Iñárritu (“Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”) and Olivia Wilde (“Don’t Worry Darling”), among others. Overall, it is a very Hollywood-friendly lineup this year.
READ MORE: Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise” to open the 2022 Venice Film Festival
Other highly anticipated premieres in the official competition include jailed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s “No Bears,” Florian Zeller’s “The Son,” Santiago Mitre’s “Argentina 1985,” Alice Diop’s “Saint Omer,” Andrew Domink‘s long-awaited “Blonde” and Joanna Hogg’s “The Eternal Daughter.”
Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise,” with his longtime collaborators Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, was previously announced as the opening film of the festival.
In a sign of the times, two of this century’s most proactive auteurs, Lars Von Trier and Nicolas Winding Refn, are debuting episodic series at the festival instead of singular films. The projects are “The Kingdom Exodus” and “Copenhagen Cowboy,” respectfully.
Out of Competition highlights include the aforementioned “Don’t Worry Darling,” Ti West’s “Pearl,” Paul Schrader’s “Master Gardner” and Walter Hill’s “Dead For A Dollar.”
Julianne Moore will be the president of the International Jury of the Competition which hands out a number of prestigious awards including the coveted Golden Lion. Last year, Audrey Diwan’s “Happening” took the prize.
Two of the other major fall festivals, the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival, are expected to announce their complete slates within the next week. The Telluride Film Festival does not publicly reveal its program until the day before the festival. However, it’s usually easy to figure out once Venice and TIFF announce with their “premiere” designations.
A complete look at this year’s program is as follows:
Competition
White Noise – Noah Baumbach (Opening Film)
Il Signore Delle Formiche – Gianni Amelio
The Whale – Darren Aronofsky
L’Immensita – Emanuele Crialese
Saint Omer – Alice Diop
Blonde – Andrew Dominik
Tar – Todd Field
Love Life – Koji Fukada
Bardo, Falsa Crónica de Unas Cuantas Verdas (Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths) – Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Athena – Romain Gavras
Bones and All – Luca Gadagnino
The Eternal Daughter – Joanna Hogg
Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall) – Vahid Jalilvhand
The Banshees of Inisherin – Martin McDonagh
Argentina, 1985 – Santiago Mitre
Chiara – Susanna Nicchiarelli
Monica – Andrea Pallaoro
Khers Nist (No Bears) – Jafar Panahi
All The Beauty And The Bloodshed – Laura Poitras
Un Couple (A Couple) – Frederick Wiseman
The Son – Florian Zeller
Les Miens (Our Ties) – Roschdy Zem
Les Enfants Des Actress (Other People’s Children) – Rebecca Zlotowski
Venice Classics – Documentaries
Ragtag – Giuseppe Boccassini
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy – Nancy Buirski
Fragments of Paradise – KD Davison
Franco Zeffirelli Conformista Ribelle – Anselma Dell’Olio
Jerry Schatzberg Portrait Paysage – Pierre Filmon
Godard, L’Homme – Cyril Leuthy
The Ghosts of Richard Harris – Adrian Sibley
Bonnie – Simon Wallon
Leone – Francesco Zippel
Orizzonti – Competition
Princess – Roberto De Paolis
Obet’ (Victim) – Michal Blasko
En Los Margenes (On the Fringe) – Juan Diego Botto
Trenque Lauren – Laura Citarella
Vera – Tizza Covi
Innocence – Guy Davidi
Blanquita – Fernando Guzzoni
Pour La France (For My Country) – Rachid Hami
Aru Otoko (A Man) – Kei Ishikawa
Chleb I Sól (Bread and Salt) – Damian Kocur
Luxembourg, Luxembourg – Antonio Lukich
Ti Mangio Il Cuore – Pippo Mezzapesa
Sure Nord (To The North) – Mihai Mincan
Autobiography – Makbul Mubarak
La Syndicaliste (The Sitting Duck) – Jean-Paul Salome
Jang-E Jahani Sevom (World War III) – Houman Seyedi
Najsrekniot Covek Na Svetot (The Happiest Man In The World) – Teona Strugar Mitevska
A Novia (The Bride) – Sergio Trefaut
Orizzonti Extra
L’Origine du Mal (Origin of Evil) – Sebastien Mariner
Hanging Gardens – Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji
Amanda – Carolina Cavalli
Zapatos Rojos (Red Shoes) – Carlos Eichelmann Kaiser
Nezouh – Saudade Kaadan
Notte Fantasma – Fulvio Risuleo
Bi Royal (Without Her) – Arian Vazirdaftari
Valeria Mithatenet (Valeria Is Getting Married) – Michal Vinik
Goliath – Adilkhan Yerzhanov
Out of Competition – Series
The Kingdom Exodus – Lars von Trier
Copenhagen Cowboy – Nicolas Winding Refn
Out of Competition – Non Fiction
Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom – Evgeny Afineevsky
The Matchmaker – Benedetta Argentieri
Gli Ultimi Giorni Dell’umanità – Enrico Ghezzi, Alessandro Gagliardo
A Compassionate Spy – Steve James
Music for Black Pigeons – Jorgen Leth, Andreas Koefoed
The Kiev Trial – Sergei Loznitsa
In Viaggio – Gianfranco Rosi
Bob Wine Ghetto President – Christopher Sharp, Moses Bwayo
Nuclear – Oliver Stone
Out of Competition – Fiction
The Hanging Sun – Francesco Carrozzini (Closing Film)
Kapag Wala Nang Mga Alon (When The Waves Are Gone) – Lav Diaz
Living – Oliver Hermanus
Dead For A Dollar – Walter Hill
Kone Taevast (Call of God) – Kim Ki-duk
Dreamin’ Wild – Bill Pohlad
Master Gardener – Paul Schrader
Siccita – Paolo Virzi
Pearl – Ti West
Don’t Worry Darling – Olivia Wilde
The 79th Venice Film Festival will run from Wed, August 31 to Saturday, September 10.