Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s ‘A Star Is Born’ set to world premiere at Venice Film Festival
It’s now confirmed that Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut, A Star Is Born starring Lady Gaga and himself, will world premiere at the 75th Venice Film Festival on Friday, August 31st.
The film, the fourth version of this story that previously starred the likes of Janet Gaynor, Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland, will be Lady Gaga’s feature film lead debut. She had a bit part in Robert Rodriguez’s Machete Kills and won a Best Actress Golden Globe award for her lead role in American Horror Story: Hotel on FX. Those who have seen the completed version of the film have raved both Cooper and Gaga for their performances and their chemistry and the buzz on the film, for its box office potential, Oscar possibilities and quality, has been stellar. She was nominated for an Oscar in 2016 for the original song “Til It Happens To You” from The Hunting Ground and has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy awards in the Variety and Special Class sections for her concert performances.
Cooper is already a four-time Oscar nominee, three for acting and one for Best Picture as a producer on American Sniper.
A Star Is Born tells the story of Jackson Maine (Cooper), a popular country music star who takes a young woman named Ally (Gaga) under his wing and turns her into a superstar. The pair’s relationship suffers as Jackson falls further into alcoholism and their careers take on divergent trajectories. The film features songs written by Cooper and Gaga together and in collaboration with musicians Lukas Nelson, Jason Isbell and Mark Ronson. The film co-stars Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Chappelle and Sam Elliott.
The three previous versions of the film have all been nominated or won Academy Awards. The 1937 version earned a Best Actress nomination for Janet Gaynor, the 1954 version saw both Judy Garland and James Mason receive nominations and the 1976 version won the Original Song Oscar (“Evergreen”) for Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.
The full Venice Film Festival lineup will be announced July 25th where Oscar winner Damien Chazelle’s First Man has already been announced as the opener. Venice 2018 runs August 29th to September 8th. Warner Bros. will release A Star Is Born stateside on October 5th.
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.
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