The 9 Most Anticipated Movies of Venice Film Festival This Year - From biopics to thrillers, these are the movies we're excited for.

Image via Netflix

The Venice International Film Festival is only a few weeks away and as usual, the red carpet on the island of the Lido will be packed with the biggest actors and directors of the industry. The official lineup for the 79th ceremony was revealed on July 26th. A total of 23 movies will be in competition to win The Golden Lion. The movies presented during the festival will include the much anticipated Don’t Worry Darling by Olivia Wilde and starring Harry Styles and Florence Pugh. This year’s competition includes some of the biggest names in the industry: From Timothée Chalamet starring in Bones and All, to Hugh Jackman in The Son, Cate Blanchett who will star in Tár, and Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde, we are going to take a closer look at some of the most anticipated movies presented this year at the Venice Film Festival.

Bones and All

Image via Fremantle

After the critically acclaimed Call Me By Your Name was released in 2017, Timothée Chalamet once again joins director Luca Guadagnino in Bones and All, a movie based on Camille DeAngelis' novel of the same name. This coming-of-age story is about two young people, Lee and Maren, respectively portrayed by Chalamet and Taylor Russell, who fall in love and travel around the country, as Lee and Maren both live on the edge of society as cannibals.

In an interview for Fantastic Man, Guadagnino said:

“I like to think that Bones and All is an extremely romantic movie, addressing the romanticism that lies within us and within relationships in general. […] Of course, there’s the literal aspect of it being a movie about cannibal lovers, which is extreme in many ways, but I think the more extreme aspect of the movie is the intensity of the feel­ings that these people go through – the impossibility of love.”

Bones and All will premiere in competition.

The Son

Image via Sony Pictures Classics

French writer and director Florian Zeller is back with a second adaptation of one of his own plays, The Son, starring Hugh Jackman, Vanessa Kirby, Laura Dern, and Anthony Hopkins, which will mark their second collaboration together after the success of The Father, for which Hopkins won an Oscar in 2021. The Son follows the busy life of Peter (Jackman) and Beth (Kirby) and their baby, a life that is turned upside down when Peter’s ex-wife, Kate (Dern), arrive with their teenage son.

In an interview with Deadline, Zeller said:

“The Son is a deeply human story that, I believe, connects us all; I hope audiences will be profoundly moved by this family’s journey. Both Hugh and Laura naturally convey great warmth, compassion, and vulnerability… inviting our audience to embrace and feel every moment. The story is set in a vibrant and very much alive New York, an important character. The movie should make us call family and friends to tell them that they are wholly loved and not alone.”

The Son will be presented in the competition.

Don’t Worry Darling

The psychological thriller Don't Worry Darling directed by Olivia Wilde, is one of this year’s most anticipated movies. Florence Pugh will portray a 1950s housewife, Alice, who lives in a utopian community in the California desert. Alice starts questioning her life and her husband, Jack (Styles) after she realizes that their entire existence in this community holds dark secrets and disturbing truths.

The cast of Don't Worry Darling also includes Chris Pine, Gemma Chan, and Sidney Chandler. The latest trailers teased a dark, intense story, as well as an extraordinary interpretation from the cast.

The movie will premiere out of competition.

Blonde

Netflix's first NC-17 rating film already has everyone talking about it. Starring Ana de Armas in the role of Hollywood's icon Marilyn Monroe, the movie is based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates, which reimagines the life of Monroe, from her childhood as Norma Jean, her romantic life, her life behind the big screen, to her personal struggles in her rise to stardom.

While rumors are already placing Ana de Armas as a strong contender for next year's Oscars, the controversy surrounding Blonde especially came from tweets, fans, essays, claiming that the movie is disrupting and exploiting Monroe. In response, The Monroe estate recently supported the movie and de Armas.

Written and directed by Andrew Dominick, who’s notably directed The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Killing Them Softly, it is safe to say that the reception of Blonde at the Venice Film Festival will set the tone for the rest of the movie’s promotional campaign and determine its fate during the award season of 2023.

Blonde will be presented in the competition.

The Banshees of Inisherin

Image via Searchlight Pictures

Director and Academy Award winner Martin McDonagh is finally reunited with actors Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, after In Bruges, released in 2009. The story follows the fallout of two lifelong friends, Pádraic (Farrell) and Colm (Gleeson), after the latter decides to end their friendship, without an explanation.

Situated on the fictional Irish Island of Inisherin, the movie takes place in 1923 and McDonagh promises to, once again, blur the lines between comedy and tragedy. He said:

"I wanted to tell a breakup story. This is about things getting inexorably worse from a simple, sad starting point [...] I wanted it to be as beautiful as possible. To aim for beauty and for cinema. Because if you heard of a story of two guys grumbling at each other, and you didn’t have the epic kind of beauty, it might get a little tiresome.”

The Banshees of Inisherin will be presented in the competition.

White Noise

Adapted from Don DeLillo’s novel of the same, White Noise is directed by Noah Baumbach and will star Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig. White Noise is about the life of an American family as they try to deal with the conflicts of their everyday lives and daily existential crises. Driver is a professor of Hitler Studies in the Midwest, and his marriage and life are turned upside down after an accident leads to an airborne toxic event

White Noise will open the festival in Venice in the competition, as well as the New York Film Festival.

The Whale

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Darren Aronofsky tackles the subject of morbid obesity in The Whale, based on the play by Samuel D. Hunter. The movie will star Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, and Samantha Morton. The story follows the life of an English teacher (Fraser) who suffers from severe obesity and who tries to reconnect with his daughter, played by Sink.

In an interview with Unilad, Fraser teased, "This is certainly far removed from anything I've ever done but not to be coy -- I do know it's going to make a lasting impression."

The Whale will be presented in the competition.

Tár

Image via Focus Features

Todd Field teams up with Cate Blanchett in Tár, in which the actor will portray Lydia Tár, considered to be one of the best composer and the first female chief conductor of a renowned German orchestra.

Tár will mark Field's big return, 15 years after his last movie, Little Children.

Cate Blanchett explained in an interview with The Film Comment Podcast, ‘'It’s about, a sort of fall from grace, a come to Jesus moment and about the creative process, and about power, so it’s really interesting."Tár will premiere in the competition.

Bardo

Image via Estudios Churubusco

Bardo, directed by critically acclaimed Alejandro G Iñárritu, will follow the life of a famous Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker who returns home and has to work his way through his personal problems, his relationships and his past life in Mexico.

Starring Ximena Lamadrid and Daniel Giménez Cacho, it was announced in April 2022 that Netflix had acquired Bardo.

Bardo will be Iñárritu's first feature since The Revenant, for which Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar and also marked the director's second Oscar for best director after Birdman.

Bardo will be presented in the competition.