With a little over a month left until the Venice Film Festival lineup is unveiled, a clutch of buzzy prestige titles with top talent has emerged as likely contenders for the Golden Lion.
New works by internationally renowned auteurs such as Florian Zeller with “Bunker,” a psychological thriller starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz; Martin McDonagh with “Wild Horse Nine,” a Searchlight Pictures political thriller starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell; Werner Herzog’s “Bucking Fastard” starring Rooney Mara and Kate Mara;” and Nanni Moretti with “It Will Happen Tonight” with Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca are expected to be among the highlights, alongside “The Echo Chamber,” the latest drama from Italy’s Andrea Pallaoro starring Alicia Vikander and Luca Marinelli as enraptured lovers and featuring Susan Sarandon.
Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera is, as usual, racing against the clock to finalize the festival’s 83rd edition, with several slots still in flux. What already appears clear, however, is that — much like Cannes this year — Venice 2026 is likely to have a lighter Hollywood footprint. A combination of studios’ growing reluctance to spend heavily on festival premieres, production delays affecting several anticipated U.S. films (and probable PTSD from “Joker 2″ getting panned) is expected to thin the ranks of major commercial titles. Among the projects unlikely to be ready in time are David Fincher’s “The Adventures of Cliff Booth” — the sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” once again starring Brad Pitt — and Tom Ford’s “Cry to Heaven,” which marks Adele’s acting debut.
