79th Venice Film Festival lineup: The stars are out with ‘Bardo,’ ‘The Son,’ The Whale,’ Don’t Worry Darling’ and more – Full List
The full lineup for the 79th Venice Film Festival was announced this morning by artistic director Alberto Barbera and it’s one of the starriest and most U.S.-dominated groups of films in search of a Golden Lion in some time.
Heavy-hitting Oscar winners and nominees like Noah Baumbach (White Noise), Todd Field (TÁR), Luca Guadagnino (Bones and All), Darren Aronofsky (The Whale) and Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Insherin) join Andrew Dominick (Blonde) and Olivia Wilde (Don’t Worry Darling) and more as main in and out of competition filmmakers that will hit the Lido from August 31 to September 10.
That’s going to bring stars like Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh, Hugh Jackman, Ana de Armas, Brendan Fraser, Adam Driver and Cate Blanchett to the Palazzo Del Cinema’s red carpet to kick of their films and Oscar dreams.
But Barbera tried to strike a serious note amongst the glamour of the names announced today.
“It’s often said that film festivals are a widow on the world,” he said. “From this window we are witnessing things that we would rather not see, such as the war of aggression on Ukraine.”
Barbera continued that he and the Venice team horrified by the arrests in Iran and the incarceration “for no reason” of filmmakers, Jafar Panahi Mohammad Rasoulof, Mostafa Al-Ahmad, “guilty only of having exercised their right to freedom of expression,” he noted. He also denounced the incarceration in Turkey of producer Cigdem Mater, “who is guilty only of having planned a doc — that was never made — on the 2013 Gezi Park anti-government protests,” Barbera said. To that note, Iran’s Jafar Panahi’s newest film, No Bears, is in competition this year as he sits in confinement.
Venice and Academy Award winner Julianne Moore will preside as president of the main jury which includes French director Audrey Diwan, winner of last year’s Venice Golden Lion for the abortion drama Happening; Leila Hatami, star of Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation; British author and screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go); Italian director Leonardo di Costanzo, in Venice last year with prison drama The Inner Cage; Argentina’s Mariano Cohn, also in Venice last year with comedy Official Competition; and Spanish director and producer Rodrigo Sorogoyen.
Here is the complete lineup of the 2022 Venice Film Festival, running August 31-September 10.
COMPETITION
“White Noise,” Noah Baumbach (U.S.) – Opening Film
“Il Signore Delle Formiche,” Gianni Amelio (Italy)
“The Whale,” Darren Aronofsky (U.S.)
“L’Immensità,” Emanuele Crialese (Italy)
“Saint Omer,” Alice Diop (France)
“Blonde,” Andrew Dominik (U.S.)
“TÁR,” Todd Field (U.S.)
“Love Life,” Kôji Fukada (Japan, France)
“Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Mexico)
“Athena,” Romain Gavras (France)
“Bones and All,” Luca Guadagnino (U.S.)
“The Eternal Daughter,” Joanna Hogg (U.K.)
“Beyond The Wall,” Vahid Jalilvand (Iran)
“The Banshees of Inisherin,” Martin McDonagh (U.K., U.S.)
“Argentina, 1985,” Santiago Mitre (Argentina, U.S.)
“Chiara,” Susanna Nicchiarelli (Italy)
“Monica,” Andrea Pallaoro (Italy)
“No Bears,” Jafar Panahi (Iran)
“All The Beauty and The Bloodshed,” Laura Poitras (U.S.)
“A Couple,” Frederick Wiseman (U.S.)
“The Son,” Florian Zeller (U.K.)
“Our Ties,” Roschdy Zem (France)
“Other People’s Children,” Rebecca Zlotowski (France)
OUT OF COMPETITION – Fiction
“The Hanging Sun,” Francesco Carrozzini (Italy) – Closing Film
“When The Waves Are Gone,” Lav Diaz (Philippines, France, Portugal, Denmark)
“Living,” Oliver Hermanus (U.K.)
“Dead For a Dollar,” Walter Hill (U.S.)
“Call Of God,” Kim Ki-duk (Estonia, Kirighistan, Lettonia)
“Dreamin’ Wild,” Bill Pohlad (U.S.)
“Master Gardener,” Paul Schrader (U.S.)
“Siccitá,” Paolo Virzì (Italy)
“Pearl,” Ti West (U.S.)
“Don’t Worry Darling,” Olivia Wilde (U.S.)
OUT OF COMPETITION – Non-Fiction
“Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom,” Evgeny Afineevsky (Ukraine, U.K., U.S.)
“The Matchmaker,” Benedetta Argentieri (Italy)
“Gli Ultimi Giorni Dell’Umanità,” Enrico Ghezzi, Alessandro Gagliardo (Italy)
“A Compassionate Spy,” Steve James (U.S.)
“Music For Black Pigeons,” Jørgen Leth, Andreas Koefoed (Denmark)
“The Kiev Trial,” Sergei Loznitsa (The Netherlands, Ukraine)
“In Viaggio,” Gianfranco Rosi (Italy)
“Bobi Wine Ghetto President,” Christopher Sharp, Moses Bwayo (Uganda, U.K., U.S.)
“Nuclear,” Oliver Stone (U.S.)
OUT OF COMPETITION – Series
“The Kingdom Exodus” (Episodes 1-5), Lars Von Trier (Denmark)
“Copenhagen Cowboy” (Episodes 1-6), Nicholas Winding Refn (Denmark)
HORIZONS
“Princess,” Roberto De Paolis (Italy) – Opening Film
“Victim,” Michal Blasko (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany)
“On The Fringe,” Juan Diego Botto (Spain)
“Trenque Lauquen,” Laura Citarella (Argentina, Germany)
“Vera,” Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel (Austria)
“Innocence,” Guy Davidi (Denmark, Israel, Finland, Iceland) – Documentary
“Blanquita,” Fernando Guzzoni (Chile, Mexico)
“For My Country,” Rachid Hami (France, Taipei)
“A Man,” Key Ishikawa (Japan)
“Bread and Salt,” Damian Kocur (Poland)
“Luxembourg, Luxembourg,” Antonio Lukich (Ukraine)
“Ti Mangio il Cuore,” Pippo Mezzapesa (Italy)
“To The North,” Mihai Mincan (Romania, France, Greece, Bulgaria, Czech Republic)
“Autobiography,” Makbul Mubarak (France, Germany, Qatar)
“The Sitting Duck,” Jean-Paul Salomé (France)
“World War III,” Houman Seyiedi (Iran)
“The Happiest Man in the World,” Teona Strugar Mitevska (Bosnia, Belgium, Denmark)
“The Bride,” Sergio Trefaut (Portugal)
HORIZONS EXTRA
“Origin of Evil,” Sébastien Marnier
“Hanging Gardens,” Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji
“Amanda,” Carolina Cavalli
“Red Shoes,” Carlos Eichelmann Kaiser
“Nezouh,” Soudade Kaadan
“Notte Fantasma,” Fulvio Risuleo
“Without Her,” Arian Vazirdaftari
“Valeria Is Getting Married,” Michael Vinik
“Goliath,” Adilkhan Yerzhanov
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- 2025 Oscar Predictions: BEST PICTURE and BEST DIRECTOR (November) - November 22, 2024
- 2025 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (November) - November 21, 2024
- 2025 Oscars: Eligibility Lists for Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and International Feature Film for the 97th Academy Awards - November 21, 2024
Interview: ‘Gladiator II’ Cinematographer John Mathieson on Reuniting with Ridley Scott and Continuing the Legacy and Lore 
Interview: Alan Menken and Glenn Slater on Creating the Songs and Score for ‘Spellbound’ and the “Perfectly” Cast Rachel Zegler 
2025 Oscar Predictions: BEST PICTURE and BEST DIRECTOR (November) 
Interview: John Lithgow on ‘Conclave’ Being a Career Highlight, Oscar Buzz and Comparing Director Edward Berger to David Lean [VIDEO]