‘Joker’ Sequel, Brad Pitt and George Clooney’s ‘Wolfs’ Headed to Venice Film Festival

Todd Phillips’ sequel “Joker: Folie a Deux,” Pedro Almodovar’s English-language debut “The Room Next Door” and Luca Guadagnino’s William Burroughs adaptation “Queer” will have their world premieres in competition at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival, Venice organizers announced in a press conference on Tuesday.

Other films in the lineup include Jon Watts’ “Wolfs,” with Brad Pitt and George Clooney; Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” with Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce; Justin Kurzel’s political thriller “The Order,” with Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult; Pablo Larrain’s film about opera singer Maria Callas, “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie; Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl,” with Nicole Kidman;

The festival previously announced that Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” will serve as the opening-night film.

While 21 films were announced as part of the main competition, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and “Wolfs” will screen out of competition, along with Harmony Korine’s “Baby Invasion,” Claude Lelouch’s “Finalement” and short films from Marco Bellocchio and the team of Alice Rohrwacher and JR.

Out-of-competition documentaries include Asif Kapadia’s “2073,” Errol Morris’ “Separated” and two films connected to the Beatles, Kevin Macdonald and John Rice-Edwards’ “One to One: John & Yoko” and Andrei Ujica’s “Twst/Things We Said Today.”

A section devoted to TV series will include new multi-part work from Alfonso Cuaron, Joe Wright and Thomas Vinterberg.

Venice is the first of the back-to-back-to-back festivals that will essentially launch movie awards season, along with the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals. While in earlier years its films were generally artier and less mainstream than the movies that appealed to Oscar voters, five of the last seven Golden Lion winners at Venice have gone on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” was honored by both the Venice jury and Oscar voters last year, and before that Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” and Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water.”

Last year, “Poor Things” and “Maestro” were the two Venice films that went on to be nominated for Best Picture, while four others – “El Conde,” “Priscilla,” “Society of the Snow” and the short “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” – were Oscar-nominated in other categories.

This year’s Venice jury will be headed by actress Isabelle Huppert and will also include directors James Gray, Andrew Haigh, Agnieszka Holland, Kleber Mendonca Filho, Abderrahmane Sissako, Giuseppe Tornatore and Julia von Heinz, along with actress Zhang Ziyi.

The Venice Film Festival will begin on Aug. 28 and end on Sept. 7.

The lineup:

Main Competition
“The Room Next Door,” Pedro Almodovar
“Campo di Battaglia,” Gianni Amelio
“Leurs Enfants Apres Eux,” Ludovic Boukherma, Zoran Boukherma
“The Brutalist,” Brady Corbet
“The Quiet Son,” Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin
“Vermiglio,” Maura Delpero
“Iddu (Sicilian Letters),” Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza
“Queer,” Luca Guadagnino
“Love,” Dag Johan Haugerud
“April,” Dea Kulumbegashvili
“The Order,” Justin Kurzel
“Maria,” Pablo Larrain
“Trois Amies,” Emmanuel Mouret
“Kill the Jockey,” Luis Ortega
“Joker: Folie a Deux,” Todd Phillips
“Babygirl,” Halina Reijn
“I’m Still Here,” Walter Salles
“Diva Futura,” Giulia Louse Steigerwalt
“Harvest,” Athina Rachel Tsangari
“Youth – Homecoming,” Wang Bing
“Stranger Eyes,” Yeo Siew Hua

Out of Competition – Fiction
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Tim Burton (opening film)
“L’Orto Americano,” Pupi Avati (closing film)
“Il Tempo che ci Vuole,” Francesca Comencini
“Phantosmia,” Lav Diaz
“Maldoror,” Fabrice du Welz
“Broken Rage,” Takeshi Kitano
“Baby Invasion,” Harmony Korine
“Cloud,” Kurosawa Kiyoshi
“Finalement,” Claude Lelouch
“Wolfs,” Jon Watts
“Se Posso Permettermi Capitolo II,” Marco Bellocchio (short film)
“Allegorie Citadine,” Alice Rohrwacher, JR (short film)

Out of Competition – Non Fiction
“Apocalypse in the Tropics,” Petra Costa
“Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari,” Massimo D’Anolfi, Martina Parenti
“Why War,” Amos Gitai
“2073,” Asif Kapadia
“One to One: John & Yoko,” Kevin Macdonald, Sam Rice-Edwards
“Separated,” Errol Morris
“Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989, Goran Hugo Olsson
“Russians at War,” Anastasia Trofimova
“Twst/Things We Said Today,” Andrei Ujica
“Songs of Slow Burning Earth,” Olha Zhurba
“Riefenstahl,” Andres Veiel

Out of Competition – Series
“Disclaimer,” Alfonso Cuaron
“The New Years,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen del Amo, Sandra Romer, David Martin de los Santos
“Familes Like Ours,” Thomas Vinterberg
“M – Il Figlio Del Secolo,” Joe Wright

Out of Competition – Revivals
“Leopardi. Il Poeta Dell’Infinito (part 1 and 2),” Sergio Rubini “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,” Peter Weir
“Beauty Is Not a Sin,” Nicolas Winding Refn (short film)

Orizzonti
“Nonostante,” Valerio Mastandrea (opening film)
“Quiet Life,” Alexandros Avranas
“Mon Inseparable,” Anne-Sophie Bailly
“Aicha,” Mehdi Barsaoui
“Happy Holidays,” Scandar Copti
“Familia,” Francesco Costabile
“One of Those Days When Hemme Dies,” Murat Firatoglu
“Familiar Touch,” Sarah Friedland
“Marco,” Jon Garano, Aitor Arregi
“Carissa,” Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar
“Wishing on a Star,” Peter Kerekes
“Mistress Dispeller,” Elizabeth Lo
“The New Year That Never Came,” Bogdan Muresanu
“Pooja, Sir,” Deepak Rauniyar
“Of Dogs and Men,” Dani Rosenberg
“Pavements,” Alex Ross Perry
“Happyend,” Neo Sora
“L’Attachment,” Carine Tardieu
“Diciannove,” Giovanni Tortorici

Orizzonti Extra
“September 5,” Tim Fehlbaum (opening film)
“Vittoria,” Alessandro Cassigoli, Casey Kauffman
“Le Mohican,” Frederic Farrucci
“Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo,” Khaled Mansour
“La Storia del Franke E Della Nina,” Paola Randi
“Shahed (The Witness),” Nader Saeivar
“After Party,” Vojtech Strakaty
“Edge of Night,” Turker Suer
“King Ivory,” John Swab

Venice Classics – Documentaries About Cinema
“Miyazaki, L’Esprit de la Nature,” Leo Favier
“I Will Revenge This World With Love S. Paradjanov,” Zara Jian
“La Cinema de Jean-Pierre Leaud,” Cyril Leuthy
“From Darkness to Light,” Michael Lurie, Eric Friedler
“Carlo Mazzacurati – Una Certa Idea di Cinema,” Enzo Monteleone, Mario Canale
“Chain Reactions,” Alexander Philippe
“Maroun Returns to Beirut,” Feyrouz Serhal
“Volonte – L’Uomo dal Mille Volti,” Francesco Zippel
“Constelacion Portabella,” Claudio Zulian

Venice Classics – Documentaries About Cinema
“Miyazaki, L’Esprit de la Nature,” Leo Favier
“I Will Revenge This World With Love S. Paradjanov,” Zara Jian
“La Cinema de Jean-Pierre Leaud,” Cyril Leuthy
“From Darkness to Light,” Michael Lurie, Eric Friedler
“Carlo Mazzacurati – Una Certa Idea di Cinema,” Enzo Monteleone, Mario Canale

Biennale College Cinema
“I; Mio Compleanno,” Christian Filippi and Leonardo Baraldi
“Honeymoon,” Zhanna Ozirna and Dmytro Sukhanov
“January 2,” Zsofia Szilagyi, Dora Csernatony and Lili Horvat
“The Fisherman,” Zoey Martinson, Kofi Owusu Afriyie, Korey Jackson