Everything We Know About the 2023 Venice Film Festival

Despite predictions of extreme turbulence and complications as a result of the SAG-AFTRA strike, the complete lineup of the 2023 Venice Film Festival is facing less disruption than some originally anticipated. Launching films by top U.S. directors, as well as a proud roster of screenwriters and directors of European, Asian, and Latin American descent, the 2023 Venice Film Festival will run from August 30 until September 9, 2023. Amid the SAG-AFTRA strike, hotly anticipated new films, and a mixed bag of festival veterans and newcomers, here is everything we know about the 2023 Venice International Film Festival. 

While the lineup for this year's Venice Film Festival remained unscathed at large, the festival was required to change its opening film, Challengers starring Zendaya, which has been delayed until 2024 as a result of the SAG-AFTRA strike. However, its replacement will be Edoardo De Angelis' Comendate, an ingenious anti-war picture starring Italian headliner Pierfrancesco Favino as a valiant Sicilian World War II naval officer. In hopes that Challengers is the only film to back out of the festival, artistic director of the festival Alberto Barbera stated in a press conference that he expects many independent U.S. projects, a number of which are scheduled to participate in the festival, to attend despite the unrest cause by the strike. 

Posing competition among top U.S. directors are Netflix titles The Killer—directed by David Fincher and starring Michael Fassbender as a solitary, methodical assassin who begins to question his own sanity—and Bradley Cooper's autobiographical drama film Maestro, bringing the life of American conductor, composer, and musical genius Leonard Bernstein to the screen. Serving as a threat to the feature film giants are also Sofia Cappola's Priscilla biopic, Ava DuVernay's Origin, and Michael Mann's Ferrari featuring Adam Driver as the film's central character Enzo Ferrari alongside distinguished actors Hugh Jackman, Patrick Dempsey, and Penélope Cruz as Laura Ferrari. 

Of the 23 titles confirmed to be in competition, 15 films are by directors attending the festival for the first time. Amidst the highly anticipated lineup, standouts include Saverio Costanzo's Finalmente L’Alba, translating to "Finally Dawn," featuring festival regulars Lily James and William Dafoe and Stranger Things heartthrob Joe Keery, as well as French film director Bertrand Bonello's La Bête, translating to "The Beast." Telling the story of female protagonist Gabrielle, played by French actress Léa Seydoux, Bonello's film accounts for the dangers behind using Artificial Intelligence as a means of achieving immortality and the ability to travel back in time. In a film in which science fiction unrequited love, Bonello's La Bête takes place over three different timelines, making festival attendees thrilled to witness its premiere at the Venice Film Festival after its absence from Cannes back in May. 

Continue below for the 2023 Venice Film Festival lineup as we quickly approach a week characterized by festivities, fashion, and most importantly, film.  

Opening Night 

Comandante, Edoardo de Angelis 

In Competition

Adagio, Stefano Sollima
La Bête, Bertrand Bonello
DogMan, Luc Besson
El Conde, Pablo Larrain
Enea, Pietro Castellitto
Evil Does Not Exist, Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Ferrari, Michael Mann
Finalmente L’Alba, Saverio Costanzo
The Green Border, Agnieszka Holland
Holly, Fien Troch
Hors-Saison, Stéphane Brizé
Io Capitano, Matteo Garrone
The Killer, David Fincher
Lubo, Giorgio Diritti
Maestro, Bradley Cooper
Memory, Michel Franco
Origin, Ava DuVernay
Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos
Priscilla, Sofia Coppola
The Promised Land, Nikolaj Arcel
Die Theorie Von Allem, Timm Kroger
Woman Of, Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert

Out of Competition

Fiction 

Aggro Dr1ft, Harmony Korine
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, William Friedkin
Coup de Chance, Woody Allen
Daaaaaal!, Quentin Dupieux
Hit Man, Richard Linklater
L’Ordine del Tempo, Liliana Cavani
The Palace, Roman Polanski
The Penitent, Luca Barbareschi
Snow Leopard, Pema Tseden
Vivants, Alix Delaporte
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Wes Anderson 

Non-Fiction

Amor, Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri
Enzo Jannacci Vengo Anch’io, Giorgio Verdelli
Frente a Guernica, Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi
Hollywoodgate, Ibrahim Nash’at
Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros, Frederick Wiseman
Ryuichi Sakamoto Opus, Neo Sora

Short

Welcome to Paradise, Leonardo Di Costanzo

Series

D’Argent et de Sang (episodes 1-12), Xavier Giannoli and Frederic Planchon
I Know Your Soul (episodes 1-2), Alen Drljevic and Nermin Hamzagic

Special Screening

La Parte del Leone: Una Storia della Mostra, Baptiste Etchegary and Guiseppe Bucchi