The 83rd Venice Film Festival opened on Wednesday with Hollywood legend George Clooney (65) receiving a lifetime achievement award as the prestigious event rolled out its red carpet on Italy’s sun-drenched Lido.
Despite a notable absence of major Hollywood blockbusters this year, the world’s oldest film festival has assembled a strong lineup of independent films running through 12 September, with several documentaries focused on the war in Gaza taking centre stage.
Hollywood stays away but A-list glamour remains
The festival kicked off with “Ink”, director Danny Boyle’s film chronicling Rupert Murdoch’s ruthless ascent in British media. Clooney’s presence provides star power even as major studios have largely bypassed Venice in favour of controlled premieres at home.
Risk-averse executives at budget-conscious studios are increasingly launching films through their own events rather than festivals, where critical reviews cannot be guaranteed. This trend has affected European festivals from Cannes to Berlin.
Gaza conflict features prominently
The main competition includes just one documentary, “Naza”, which examines the Israeli forces’ killing of civilians in Gaza. Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor won an Oscar for their 2024 film “No Other Land”, documenting Israel’s displacement of a Palestinian community in the West Bank.
Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera told AFP that addressing the Gaza situation through film was essential.
“There are no fewer than four films that deal with the Palestinian issue and the current situation in Iran, so there can be no doubt about where we stand on this matter,” he said on Tuesday.
Related documentaries screening at Venice include “Citizen Osama”, about a photojournalist in Gaza, and “Road to Jericho”, covering the Israeli-occupied West Bank from Israeli director Amos Gitai.
Controversy and comebacks
Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s “DAU”, a multi-year project about Soviet physicists, has drawn criticism from Ukraine’s government, which claimed it was “linked to the Russian state and its influence networks”.
Khrzhanovsky issued a detailed rebuttal, noting he had renounced his Russian citizenship in protest against the war with Ukraine. “DAU is not an instrument of Russian state cultural policy. It is an artistic statement about the nature of totalitarian evil,” he wrote on Facebook.
An exception to Hollywood’s retreat is Disney’s out-of-competition documentary “Don’t Look Back in Anger”, covering last year’s reunion tour of Manchester band Oasis and the reconciliation between long-feuding brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher. Festival organisers have promised both will walk the red carpet on Saturday.
Other notable entries competing for the top Golden Lion prize include Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine”, featuring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as eccentric CIA agents, and Florian Zeller’s psychological thriller “Bunker” with real-life Spanish couple Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem.
Venice veteran Werner Herzog is competing with “Bucking Fastard” starring sisters Kate Mara and Rooney Mara, whilst US director Lance Oppenheim’s “Primetime” involves Robert Pattinson in a story about a reality TV show catching criminals.
World’s richest man Elon Musk is unlikely to appear for the premiere of a four-hour documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, which Musk has called a “hit piece”. Gibney, known for “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” and “Taxi to the Dark Side”, describes his latest work as an “unvarnished” look at the influential entrepreneur.
Susan Sarandon appears in Italian film “The Echo Chamber” from director Andrea Pallaoro. The “Thelma and Louise” star revealed in February that Hollywood talent agency UTA fired her in 2023 after she spoke at a pro-Palestine rally, and she now works on small European and UK projects.
At the 2025 Venice festival, “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, about a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli troops, received a 23-minute standing ovation and won the grand jury second prize.
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