26 Jul Venice 2022 Lineup Announced: Baumbach’s ‘White Noise’ To Open Festival
The lineup for this year’s Venice Film Festival was just announced. This is the first major festival lineup announcement of the Oscar season and it gives us our first introductory look at this year’s possible contenders. In five of the past six years, a top two Picture contender has played at Venice and this trend shows no signs of stopping.
In my predictions from last month, I have three of the films that have shown up in the Venice lineup in the top 10: The Son, Bardo, and White Noise. While I’m not confident that any of these films will become a top 2 Best Picture contender this season, I’m essentially guaranteeing that one of them will end up being a top 5 contender (The Whale could end up being the Venice top 5 Picture contender as well).
Anyways, here is the Venice slate:
Opening Night
“White Noise,” Noah Baumbach (in competition)
Competition/Venezia 79
“Il Signore delle Formiche,” Gianni Amelio
“The Whale,” Darren Aronofsky
“L’Immensita,” Emanuele Crialese
“Saint Omer,” Alice Diop
“Blonde,” Andrew Dominik
“TÁR,” Todd Field
“Love Life,” Koji Fukada
“Bardo,” Alejandro González Iñárritu
“Athena,” Romain Gavras
“Bones and All,” Luca Guadagnino
“The Eternal Daughter,” Joanna Hogg
“Beyond the Wall,” Vahid Jalilvand
“The Banshees of Inisherin,” Martin McDonagh
“Argentina, 1985,” Santiago Mitre
“Chiara,” Susanna Nicchiarelli
“Monica,” Andrea Pallaoro
“No Bears,” Jafar Panahi
“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Laura Poitras
“A Couple,” Frederick Wiseman
“The Son,” Florian Zeller
“Our Ties,” Roschdy Zem
“Other People’s Children,” Rebecca Zlotowski
Out of Competition (Fiction)
Closing Film: “The Hanging Sun,” Francesco Carrozzini
“When the Waves Are Gone,” Lav Diaz
“Living,” Oliver Hermanus
“Dead for a Dollar,” Walter Hill
“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
Here are the Best Picture nominees that went to Venice from the past 6 years:
2021 – In Competition: The Power of the Dog; Out of Competition: Dune
2020 – In Competition: Nomadland (Golden Lion winner)
2019 – In Competition: Joker (Golden Lion winner), Marriage Story
2018 – In Competition: The Favourite, Roma (Golden Lion winner); Out of Competition: A Star is Born
2017 – In Competition: The Shape of Water (Golden Lion winner), Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2016 – In Competition: Arrival, La La Land; Out of Competition: Hacksaw Ridge
Based on this, it would be reasonable to suspect that at least two fiction films from this year’s in competition and out of competition slates will make it in Best Picture.
In order of likelihood that will probably be Bardo, The Son, White Noise, The Whale, Don’t Worry Darling, and then The Banshees of Inisherin. Bardo and The Son are my current picks to become Best Picture nominees and I fear that White Noise might suffer the same fate that many other Venice openers have since La La Land in 2016 where they come from big auteurs yet aren’t met with the expected praise (Downsizing, First Man, and The Truth all fit this mold).
Here is the rest of the slate:
Out of Competition (Non Fiction)
“Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” Evgeny Afineevsky
“The Matchmaker,” Benedetta Argentieri
“Gli Ultima Giorni Dell’Umanita,” Enrico Ghezzi, Alessandro Gagliardo
“A Compassionate Spy,” Steve James
“Music for Black Pigeons,” Jorgen Leth and Andreas Koefoed
“The Kiev Trial,” Sergei Loznitsa
“In Viaggio,” Gianfranco Rosi
“Bobby White Ghetto President,” Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo
“Nuclear,” Oliver Stone
Out of Competition (Series)
“The Kingdom Exodus,” Lars von Trier
“Copenhagen Cowboy,” Nicolas Winding Refn
Horizons/Orizzonti
“Princess,” Roberto de Paolis
“Victim,” Michal Blanko
“On the Fringe,” Juan Diego Botto
“Trenque Lauquen,” Laura Citarella
“Vera,” Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
“Innocence,” Guy Davidi
“Blanquita,” Fernando Guzzoni
“Pour La France (For My Country,” Rachid Hami
“A Man,” Kei Ishikawa
“Bread and Salt,” Damian Kocur
“Luxembourg, Luxembourg,” Antonio Lukich
“Ti Mangio IL Cuore,” Pippo Mezzapesa
“To the North,” Mihai Mincan
“Autobiography,” Makbul Mubarak
“La Syndicaliste (The Sitting Duck),” Jean-Paul Salomé
“World War III,” Houman Seyedi
“The Happiest Man in the World,” Teona Strugar Mitevska
“The Bride,” Sérgio Tréfaut
Horizons/Orizzonti Extra
“Origin of Evil,” Sébastien Marnier
“Hanging Gardens,” Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji
“Amanda,” Carolina Cavalli
“Red Shoes,” Carlos Eichelmann Kaiser
“Nezouh,” Soudade Kaadan
“Notte Fantasma,” Fulvio Risuleo
“Without Her,” Arian Vazirdaftari
“Valeria Is Getting Married,” Michal Vinik
“Goliath,” Adilkhan Yerzhanov
Source: IndieWire