With the Cannes Film Festival still going strong, it’s easy to forget about the other festivals in the horizon, most importantly the Venice Film Festival in September. While the official list of films won’t be released until the end of July, Screen Daily came up with a list of films that didn’t or couldn’t make the Cannes festival, and are currently eyeing premieres at the Lido.
Topping the list are two sure bets already tipped for Venice including, Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” along with Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere,”. Other films likely to be ready for consideration are Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter,” “Black Swan” by Darren Aronofsky, Anton Corbijn’s “The American,” Bruce Robinson’s “The Rum Diary,” Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest,” John Cameron Mitchell’s “Rabbit Hole” and “Machete” by Robert Rodriguez. Also in mind are new films by Béla Tarr, Susanne Bier, Takashi Miike, and Wayne Wang. It’s quite a list, and although nothing’s been confirmed yet, this could make it the strongest line up for the festival in years (Julian Schnabel’s “Miral” already seems to be locked into a Venice slot).
The article also lists Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours” starring James Franco for potential consideration and while it’s possible, take note the film just wrapped shooting yesterday and that might prove a tight turnaround for a film with many scenes — stuck on a mountain, with little-to-no dialogue — that may need to be finessed and calibrated.
Many of these films will also probably play the Toronto International Film Festival which is good news for those of us in North America that don’t want to fly to Europe to see films only a week or two earlier than the rest of the world.
Last time we checked, “Tree of Life” was 97% done, so as long as they finish a percent per month, the film should be ready to go in time for Venice. “Somewhere” will see a December 22nd release, so there’s probably no reason it can’t make the festival a few months earlier. Both could use the extra push, as “The New World” and “Lost in Translation” (“Marie Antoinette” was largely ignored or despised) were quite a long time ago and regular movie-goers could use some awards buzz to attract them to the theater seats.
With all these films slated for competition, and Quentin Tarantino to lead the jury, is there any speculation as to what film will win? Well, considering there might be a strong crop of Asian films (Takashi Miike, Kim Je-woon who did the incredibly enjoyable “The Good, The Bad, the Weird,” etc.), they could be favored. But you never know, Tarantino could surprise everyone and choose something completely different from his well-known taste.
The one thing about these articles? There’s always a heathly dose speculation in amongst the informed reporting. For example, ScreenDaily also suggests Cary Joji Fukunaga’s “Jane Eyre,” and Kevin Macdonald’s “The Eagle Of The Ninth,” could hit Venice, but the former is scheduled for a 2011 release and the latter is all but ready to get bumped into the following year as well (unless Focus schedule it for October or November). Would they show them that far in advance if that’s the case? Not likely.
The Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival will be the next big festivals to watch for, with Venice starting September 1st and Toronto kicking off September 19th.
