The 83rd Venice Film Festival opened on Wednesday with the presentation of an honorary Golden Lion to George Clooney. The 65-year-old actor took the opportunity to criticize the American government, calling the United States a “kakistocracy”, a country run according to him by the least qualified people. He also spoke about his journey, attributing his success to a series of “happy accidents”.
But the opening of the festival was above all marked by the controversy over the very low representation of female directors. Of the 21 films in competition, only two are directed by women, including one co-directed with a man. President of the jury, Maggie Gyllenhaal joked about this situation before denouncing a “systemic” problem, believing in particular that women encounter more difficulties in financing their films. Artistic director Alberto Barbera cited the insufficient quality of the works proposed.
Another special feature of this edition: the weak presence of major American studiosalready observed in Cannes and Berlin. This absence benefits independent productions and French cinema, which has four films in competition, by Florian Zeller, Cédric Kahn, Nicolas Pariser and Stéphane Brizé. Five Italian directors are also in the running, including Nanni Moretti, returning to Venice after a 37-year absence.
Finally, politics should once again come to the Lido. Four films address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while the programming of “Dau”, by Ilya Khrzhanovsky, provokes the anger of Ukraine, which denounces the project’s links with Russian interests. The Mostra, for its part, defends the director, a long-time opponent of Vladimir Putin who renounced his Russian nationality.
