All posts tagged: Venice

The Possible Oscar Contenders From the Venice and Toronto Film Festival Lineups

The Possible Oscar Contenders From the Venice and Toronto Film Festival Lineups

Published by Sam Flores

It’s been six years since a movie that debuted at a fall film festival won the best-picture Oscar. Instead, the past few seasons have seen big studio movies like One Battle After Another or Oppenheimer make it to the Oscar stage without visiting any of the major festivals, while the movies that have emerged from the festival circuit have come from events earlier in the year—like Anora’s trip to Cannes or Everything Everywhere All at Once’s SXSW debut. For a long time, it’s been a firmly held industry belief that releasing your film too early in the year means mounting an Oscar campaign that will be too long, too arduous, and too expensive to pay off. Now that that theory has been dispelled, do fall festivals still hold the same weight in awards season that they used to? Rosalind Eleazar in Misty Green. Merrick Morton/A24 In short: yes. This week on Little Gold Men, the team makes the case for why fall film festivals still matter, especially for smaller movies that need strong word of …

Greta Lee Found ‘Late Fame.’ She’s Not Taking It for Granted

Greta Lee Found ‘Late Fame.’ She’s Not Taking It for Granted

Published by Daniella Wilson

Greta Lee knows the feeling of breaking out a little late. The Los Angeles native, who studied theater at Northwestern University and stood out with supporting roles in hit shows like Girls and Russian Doll over the first decade-plus of her career, was a kind of comic utility player onscreen until her transfixing dramatic turn in Past Lives. That Oscar-nominated movie, directed by new A24 favorite Celine Song, hit theaters a few months after Lee had turned 40 in 2023, going on to net her a Golden Globe nomination and wide critical acclaim. Past Lives ushered in a new chapter for Lee: She earned an Emmy nom for her role in Apple’s blockbuster series The Morning Show, took on key roles in massive Disney projects like Tron: Ares and Toy Story 5, and — perhaps the highest marker of status in Hollywood these days — played herself in an episode of The Studio.  With more notoriety comes more choice, and so it’s notable that Lee’s next big project is Late Fame, a scrappy indie helmed …

Venice Biennale President Calls EU Withdrawal ‘Entirely Political’

Venice Biennale President Calls EU Withdrawal ‘Entirely Political’

Published by Jenni Sidey

The Venice Biennale will not exclude Russia from its events due to political pressure, the foundation’s president said Thursday in a public address criticizing the European Union’s recent confirmation that it will suspend a €2 million ($2.3 million) grant. The withdrawal of funding was made in response to Russia’s participation in this year’s Biennale for the first time since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. During the opening of the 2026 Venice Film Festival, Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco said the EU ”was ⁠a fellow traveler with whom we shared part of a journey, ​and who is now leaving us for reasons that are entirely ​political, certainly not legal, and still less cultural.” The news was first reported by Reuters.  Related Articles Earlier this week, the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) announced the suspension of funding after a legal review determined that EU taxpayers’ money should be spent on initiatives aligned with democratic values, which it said Russia does not uphold. The decision echoes a recommendation from the European Commission, which said that …

Beyond the body: Wayne McGregor stretches the definition of dance at this year’s Venice Dance Biennale | Dance

Beyond the body: Wayne McGregor stretches the definition of dance at this year’s Venice Dance Biennale | Dance

Published by Sam Flores

The most memorable performance in the opening days of this year’s Venice Dance Biennale had barely any dance in it at all. Italian choreographer Andrea Salustri’s Invisible is built around movement, but it’s movement of light, air, water and sound waves, with Salustri and co-creator Alice Rende as shadowy figures conducting the elements. They brew up storms like Zeus and Poseidon, with flashing veins of light, sounds of pummelling rain (in fact small drips and bubbles amplified by powerful microphones) and an enormous amount of billowing smoke that ultimately whips itself into a spinning tornado. Conducting the elements … Andrea Salustri in Invisible. Photograph: Cosmin Cirstea Salustri, who won the Italian callout to create a new work for this year’s biennale, is a circus artist and philosophy graduate, and he is also a choreographer – a definition so much wider than one who devises dance. This year marks the 20th dedicated dance festival in Venice (dance was previously seen as part of the theatre or music programmes here until 1999, since when it has been …

Venice Festival unveils 2026 lineup

Venice Festival unveils 2026 lineup

Published by Daniella Wilson

The 83rd Venice International Film Festival is unveiling its official lineup today. Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera and Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, president of the Biennale di Venezia, will confirm the films running in competition and main sidebar sections. You can follow their presentation, starting from 11 am local time at La Biennale Library of the Historical Archive in Venice, on the festival site or on its social media channels on YouTube, X, TikTok, and Facebook. Venice, alongside Cannes, is considered the world’s most prestigious film festival and a major awards season prognosticator. Buttafuoco, who has usually avoided making political statements in reference to the Venice festival, made an exception this time. In his official comments opening the press conference, he lashed out at the European Commission, which this week withdrew a €2 million ($2.8 million) grant earmarked for the La Biennale di Venezia Foundation. The EC took the move to punish Venice’s art Biennale for allowing Russia to return to the event this year, for first time since the start of the invasion of Ukraine in …

‘Not a big deal’: New Venice mayor on US ambassador’s superyacht visit – Spotlight

‘Not a big deal’: New Venice mayor on US ambassador’s superyacht visit – Spotlight

Published by Sam Flores

François Picard is pleased to welcome Venice’s new mayor, Simone Venturini, just 38 years old and one month into office. He offers a unique governing philosophy rooted in balancing contradictions rather than embracing absolutes. His central argument is that Venice cannot be understood merely as an open-air museum threatened by mass tourism, nor simply as a global cultural icon. Instead, he portrays it as a living, breathing city that must simultaneously preserve its fragile heritage, remain open to international exchange, and reinvent its economic future. Mayor Venturini rejects symbolic politics in favour of pragmatic governance. Whether discussing Russia’s participation in the Venice Biennale, controversial tourist access fees or the arrival of billionaire superyachts. For him, public debate often focuses on emotionally charged symbols while overlooking practical realities and long-term structural challenges. His broader vision is of Venice that of a laboratory for managing overtourism, a diplomatic bridge between East and West, and an emerging centre for technology and innovation. He seeks to attract a “slower kind of tourism”. Venturini insists that Venice is a “fragile …

Venice Festival unveils 2026 lineup

Danny Boyle’s Murdoch drama Ink to Open Venice Film Festival

Published by Daniella Wilson

Danny Boyle‘s Ink, a drama about Rupert Murdoch’s rise to media power in the world of the U.K. tabloids, will open this year’s Venice Film Festival. Ink will have its world premiere in competition in Venice, opening the 83rd festival on Sept. 2. Guy Pearce stars as Murdoch in the biographical drama, from playwright James Graham, who adapted his Tony-nominated play of the same name for the screen. Jack O’Connell (Sinners) plays Larry Lamb, hired by Murdoch to run his new British tabloid The Sun and transform it into a dark force in British media. Claire Foy plays Jules Davies. This will mark Boyle’s first time on the Lido. “This is my baptism at the film festival,” Boyle said, calling it “a huge honor to be in a city of such extraordinary art and opening this great festival with my new film.” Ink is set in 1969, the year Murdoch and Lamb launched The Sun, a paper that, with it far-right political reporting and populist rabble rousing, became hugely successful and set the template for …

Ellen Burstyn to Receive Venice Lifetime Golden Lion

Ellen Burstyn to Receive Venice Lifetime Golden Lion

Published by Daniella Wilson

Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, The Exorcist) will be honored at this year’s Venice Film Festival with a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement. Burstyn will attend the 83rd Venice Festival and receive her award at the screening of Flesh Impact, a new short film from director Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Bride!) which stars Burstyn alongside Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard, and Sepideh Moafi. “Wow! I not only get to travel to one of my top most favorite cities in the whole world. I get to return home carrying a Golden Lion in my arms!,” Burstyn said in a statement. “I feel so honored— so happy — so filled with gratitude! Wow indeed!” Calling the 93-year-old Burstyn an actress “of rare intensity and truth,” Venice’s artistic director Alberto Barbera paid tribute to her long and enduring career. Burstyn has been a presence in American cinema for more than fifty years, he said, “bringing depth and complexity to unforgettable female characters embodying the contradictions and transformations in the contemporary woman.” Barbera highlighted Burstyn’s most famous …

EU Commission Recommends Cancelation of Venice Biennale Grant

EU Commission Recommends Cancelation of Venice Biennale Grant

Published by Jenni Sidey

Over the weekend, a European Union commission followed up on its earlier threats to cancel a €2 million grant to the Venice Biennale, citing Russia’s participation in the event this year as its reasoning. The European Commission was among the most high-profile voices to denounce the Biennale in advance of the opening, saying that the exhibition should never have let Russia back into the show. Russia had not staged a pavilion at the Venice Biennale since 2022, the year that the country invaded Ukraine. Related Articles During the Biennale, the pavilion faced protests from such groups as the Russian collective Pussy Riot. Before the Biennale, a wide array of politicians had likewise denounced the pavilion, whose organizers said they would close their exhibition shortly after the Biennale’s opening. The Biennale claimed it could not kick Russia out of the festival, claiming that doing so would be a form of censorship. The reasoning appeared to conflict with prior statements from 2022, when the Biennale issued words of support for Ukraine after Russia’s artist representatives withdrew in …

EU Plans to Remove Venice Biennale Grant Move On—and More Art News

EU Plans to Remove Venice Biennale Grant Move On—and More Art News

Published by Jenni Sidey

The Headlines EU TO PULL VENICE FUNDING? The European Commission has recommended the withdrawal of €2 million from the Venice Biennale as a dispute over Russia’s participation in the exhibition continues, the Art Journal reports. The move follows months of tension over the reopening of the Russian Pavilion, which returned this year after closing in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. EU executive vice-president Henna Virkkunen said the recommendation followed an assessment of the Biennale’s justification for allowing Russia’s participation, arguing that publicly funded culture should uphold democratic values. The Biennale previously defended its decision, saying it followed international rules and that the pavilion was never opened to the public. Moreover, the Biennale claimed, excluding countries from the show would amount to censorship. The European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) will make the final call. Related Articles FLORENCE’S CUBIST CRISIS. UNESCO is reviewing a dark, nearly 100-foot-tall redevelopment behind the façade of Florence’s former Teatro Comunale after fierce backlash over its impact on the city’s Renaissance skyline, the Art Newspaper reports. The luxury apartment project has sparked protests, public outrage and a criminal investigation into 15 people involved …