And just like that, summer is over, and the festival season is about to start. That’s right, blockbuster season is essentially over, and now it’s time for the fall film festival circuit to produce and premiere the film titles that will be vying for Oscars later this year. As always, the Venice Film Festival kicks off the season first, and the 79th edition is as strong as ever, proving that the festival is just as important as France’s Cannes Film Festival, if not more so.
READ MORE: Noah Baumbach’s ‘White Noise’ To Open 2022 Venice Film Festival
In recent years, with Netflix refusing to premiere its films in France because of the country’s windowing and theatrical issues—films aren’t allowed to premiere in Cannes unless a movie is in a French theatrical release within a certain period of time—Cannes loss has been Venices’s gain, meaning a super robust festival that includes all the top filmmakers in the world.
This year’s edition sees Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise” as the opening night film, a Netflix title, plus two more high profile films for the streamer: Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn Monroe reverie “Blonde” and Alejandro González Iñárritu, “Bardo,” the Mexican director’s first collaboration with Netflix.
Other high-profile titles in the line-up include Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones and All,” Todd Field’s “TÁR,” Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling,” Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Joanna Hogg’s “The Eternal Daughter,” Florian Zeller’s “The Son,” Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” and a new Nicolas Winding Refn series, “Copenhagen Cowboy,” another Netflix release.
The Venice Film Festival runs from August 31 to September 10. Look for our coverage of the festival then. Without further ado, here’s a quick list of 16 picks you should put on your radar from a festival that has so much to offer.
“White Noise”
Director Noah Baumbach and Adam Driver have teamed up again in the black comedy “White Noise,” which is adapted from Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name. Timely in its idea of global pandemics, “White Noise” centers on an airborne toxic event of frightening and unknowable proportions that disrupts the lives of a family and those around them in the 1980s. The film stars Driver, alongside Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, May Nivola, Lars Eidinger, Andre Benjamin, and Jodie Turner-Smith.
“Don’t Worry Darling”
Olivia Wilde’s sophomore directorial debut and follow-up to her acclaimed “Booksmart” debut centers on a 1950s housewife (Florence Pugh) living with her husband (Harry Styles) in a utopian experimental community who begins to worry that his glamorous company may be hiding disturbing secrets. Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll, and Chris Pine, Kate Berlant co-star and Darren Aronofsky’s director of photography Matthew Libatique, lenses the picture.
“TÁR”
After 18 years of being MIA from filmmaking—his last movie being 2024’s Oscar-nominated “Little Children”— filmmaker Todd Field finally returns with his third-feature-length effort, “TÁR.” A psychological drama, “TÁR” stars Cate Blanchett as a world-renowned classical music composer. The film co-stars Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, and Mark Strong.
“Bardo”
Academy Award-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu brings the 2022 Venice Film Festival the visually stunning epic “Bardo (or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths).” The film tells the journey of Silverio, a renowned Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker who, after winning an international award, returns to his native country, unaware of what the trip has in store for him. “Bardo” stars Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Iker Sanchez Solano, Andrés Almeida, and Francisco Rubio.
“Bones and All”
A coming-of-age romantic horror that sorry, has nothing to do with Armie Hammer, filmmaker Luca Guadagnino’s new film, “Bones And All,” follows cannibalistic lovers Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell as they embark on a road trip across 1980s America. Their love is tested when the pair is faced with their terrifying pasts. Mark Rylance, Michael Stuhlbarg, André Holland. Jessica Harper, Chloë Sevigny, Francesca Scorsese, and filmmaker David Gordon Green co-star.
“The Whale”
Having already earned American-Canadian actor Brendan Fraser the Toronto International Film Festival Tribute Award for his performance, “The Whale” tells the story of a reclusive English teacher who suffers from severe obesity and attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter. Alongside Fraser, “The Whale” stars Sadie Sink, Ty Simpkins, Hong Chau, and Samantha Morton and is directed by Darren Aronofsky.