By Ella Robertson, Fourth Year, MA English and French
The 82nd Venice Film Festival has drawn to a close after just over a week of cinematic spectacle, with cinephiles and stars alike taking to the red carpet. This year’s edition moved from mind-bending sci-fi to Gothic blockbusters, delivering quieter moments in between.
Situated at the perfect midpoint between Cannes and awards season, Venice’s annual celebration plays a crucial role not only in predicting future Oscar contenders, but in shaping cultural conversations and curating our viewing lists for the darker months ahead.
This year, under the glorious Mediterranean sun, the floating city saw the likes of Jim Jarmusch, Benny Safdie and Gianfranco Rosi sweep up major awards at the ceremony. The esteemed Golden Lion for Best Film narrowly escaped the bigger, more anticipated titles, going instead to Jarmusch for his understated comedy, Father Sister Mother Brother. Benny Safdie, meanwhile, won Best Director for The Smashing Machine, which stars an unusually sensitive Dwayne Johnson as MMA pioneer Mark Kerr.
When it came to red carpet fashion, style was in no short supply. Amal and George Clooney’s lavish entrance via water taxi was a show all in itself (and perhaps a better one than the entirety of Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, in which Clooney stars). As they hopped over to Venice from their Lake Como villa, Amal shone in a butter-yellow dress. Later on, Julia Roberts and Amanda Seyfried matched with their Versace looks, whilst Jacob Elordi brought a certain old-time class with his white-and-black Bottega two-pieces. Colman Domingo’s Valentino suit with gold shoulder tassels and Kaia Gerber’s effortlessly chic outfits also pierced through the frenzy of the festival.
Aside from the big winners and celebrity photoshoots, the festival was, unsurprisingly, dominated by talk, debate, and protest relating to ongoing issues worldwide, particularly the genocide in Gaza and the Ukraine war. The film selection this year reflected a deep undercurrent of global anxieties, ranging from authoritarian power in Olivier Assayas’ The Wizard of the Kremlin, to the looming threat of nuclear catastrophe in Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite, and the systemic oppression of Britain’s minority communities in Imran Perretta’s Ish. Much discussion centred around Kaouther Ben Hania’s docudrama The Voice of Hind Rajab, for which Hania took home the Grand Jury Prize. The film depicts the horrific murder of a five-year-old girl by Israeli forces during the invasion of Gaza in January 2024, and its screening received a 24-minute standing ovation.
Alexander Rodnyansky’s Notes of a True Criminal was met with equal acclaim for its personal, despairing account of Ukraine’s history, combining footage from over 30 years ago with recent images of the war. Replacing intense combat displays with a more personal focus, the documentary poignantly analyses Ukraine’s turbulent history and its personal toll.
Werner Herzog and Paolo Sorrentino delivered rare stillness amid the festival’s hubbub. Recipient of this year’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, Herzog debuted Ghost Elephants, a warm and engaging study of the beauty of the natural world. This documentary follows a South African naturalist’s quest to discover a new species of elephant said to roam the remote highland plateaus of Angola, beyond the reach of human observation. Sorrentino roams the same path with his dreamy, melancholic tale of a fictional Italian president nearing the end of his term in office. A stylish and ruminative piece, we see how the solitude of old age evades not even the most powerful.
For some final comments, Julia Roberts’ performance in After the Hunt has established her as a potential Oscar nominee, even if the film itself is weighed down by an air of pseudo-intellectualism. Park Chan-wook’s ‘bleakly hilarious’ comedy about economic anxiety is already being hailed as this year’s Parasite, whilst Guillermo del Toro’s highly anticipated Frankenstein has been met with mixed reviews. With its sensationalised graphics and star-studded ensemble, critics were left torn over Jacob Elordi’s portrayal of Mary Shelley’s tortured creation, questioning whether the monster’s good looks lose the point of the original storyline altogether. Is Frankenstein just too suave to be truly terrifying? We’ll have to wait until November 7th to find out.
Featured Image: Manuele Fior
Are there any films you think are already frontrunners for the awards season?
