Hungarian filmmaker Lili Horvát’s first English-language feature, “My Notes on Mars,” starring Mackenzie Davis and Rupert Friend, will open the Venice Film Festival’s independently run Giornate Degli Autori.
The section has unveiled a richly assorted lineup that featuring works by female directors and those exploring the female universe, regardless of who is behind the camera.
This years’s selection of the Giornate – which is also known as Venice Days – comprises 25 world premieres across several sections, 14 of which are directed by women.
The hotly anticipated “My Notes on Mars” by Horvát — whose last film “Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time” debuted at Venice and Toronto in 2020 — centers on an astrophysicist with a troubled marriage named Margot who vanishes while hiking with her husband, Sam. Weeks later, she suddenly reappears on the day of her own memorial service. Margot remembers nothing about her life — except her Mars research.
“Notes on Mars” is among 10 Venice Days competition entries that will be judged by an all-female jury headed by Spanish director Carla Simón (“Alcarràs,” “Romeria”). The other jurors are Hania Mroue, founder and director of Beirut’s beloved Metropolis Cinema, and Italian director and producer Sara Fgaier.
