Venice 83 opens with Danny Boyle's "Ink" and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to George Clooney

The 83rd International Film Festival opens today at the Venice Lido and continues until September 12, under the direction of Alberto Barbera. The opening film is Danny Boyle’s “Ink”, presented in world premiere and placed directly in competition: set in 1969, it stars Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy. This is reported by the LaPresse agency from the Lido and the official communications of the Biennale.

Opening with a title in competition is not the most common choice for a festival: the opening night usually hosts a film out of competition, that is, a work that is not submitted to the jury’s judgment. Putting the opening film in competition means immediately exposing the contest to public comparison and depriving the jury of the advantage of starting on the second day.

The ceremony

During the opening on September 2, George Clooney receives the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, with the laudatio delivered by Laura Dern. A second Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement is awarded to American actress Ellen Burstyn. The opening and closing ceremonies are hosted by Greta Scarano and Nicolas Maupas; the live television broadcast begins at 6:45 p.m. on Rai Movie, as indicated by the schedule with the program lineup.

From the host, as reported by LaPresse, a line addressed to the female audience: “Girls, dream of becoming directors”.

Twenty films and a jury

The competition lines up twenty films. The international jury is chaired by actress and director Maggie Gyllenhaal and includes Kaouther Ben Hania, Daniel Blumberg, Francesco Casetti, Xavier Giannoli, Shahrbanoo Sadat and Johnnie To: this is reported by the official program cited by My Note Style and the edition’s profile based on the Biennale’s press releases.

The jury’s composition is more international than the average of the titles in competition: Tunisia with Ben Hania, Afghanistan with Sadat, Hong Kong with Johnnie To sit alongside France’s Giannoli, the United Kingdom’s Blumberg and Italy’s Casetti. This is a factor that weighs on the outcome, because the reading of a film changes according to the frame of reference of whoever is watching it.

Among the anticipated titles is the return to competition of Nanni Moretti with “Succederà questa notte”, “Un bon petit soldat” by Stéphane Brizé with Alba Rohrwacher and Vincent Lindon, and “The Echo Chamber” by Andrea Pallaoro with Luca Marinelli, Alicia Vikander and Susan Sarandon. The Festival closes with “Dio ride” by Giovanni Veronesi.

The parallel sections

Alongside the competition, the 41st International Critics’ Week, directed by Beatrice Fiorentino, and the 23rd edition of the Venice Days, directed by Gaia Furrer, take place. These are independent events held in parallel with the Festival: they have their own selections and juries, and over the years have served as the first public showcase for debut works that do not find a place in the main program.

Eleven days of screenings, two Lifetime Achievement Lions and twenty films in competition: the calendar closes on September 12 with the awards ceremony and the screening of the closing film.

What we don’t know

We do not know the precise date on which the jury will announce the awards, nor the complete list of the twenty titles in competition: the available sources indicate only a portion of them. The production nationalities of the competing films are not known, and we do not have the composition of the juries of the parallel sections.