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Festival coverage

Venice Film Festival

28 August – 7 September 2019

Joaquin Phoenix in Joker
Joaquin Phoenix in Joker

The 76th edition of the festival - which ran from August 28 to September 7 - opened with Hirokazu Kore-eda's The Truth, starring Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche and Ethan Hawke.

Director Pedro Almodovar and actress Julie Andrews received Golden Lions for achievement. Cinematographer Bigazzi (The Great Beauty) was also honoured with the Campari Passion For Film award. Todd Phillips' Joker won the Golden Lion. Details of all the award winners here.

Other years (10)

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Latest reviews

  • White On White
    Review preview for White On White

    Court is diligent in his management of movement, with the most vulnerable characters almost static unless physically moved by others, as if they were mere props.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A man hired to photograph a wedding at an estate seized from indigenous people becomes obsessed with the bride to be after discovering she is underage.
  • State Funeral
    Review preview for State Funeral

    What the cumulative effect of masterfully restored newsreel may lack in action, it more than makes up for with the numbing, slow-burn sensation of being drawn under the spell of state-orchestrated mass mourning.

    Matthew Anderson · 4 out of 5
    Documentary based on footage from March 5 - 9, 1953, when the USSR mourned and buried Joseph Stalin.
  • Martin Eden
    Review preview for Martin Eden

    Luca Marinelli is excellent in the lead, balancing intensity with intelligence, convincing at every stage of Martin's journey.

    Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
    A man struggles to better his circumstances, motivated by his love for a woman from a bourgeois family.
  • The Painted Bird
    Review preview for The Painted Bird

    Smutný gives us faces that will stories even when they're still, the weight of long experience etched into every line.

    Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
    A lone Jewish boy has to fend for himself in Nazi-occupied eastern Europe.
  • Collective
    Review preview for Collective

    Although he is dealing specifically with one instance in Romania, it's easy to see evidence of greater global malaise reflected here.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
    Documentary considering the aftermath of a nightclub fire that exposed deep corruption in the Romanian healthcare system.
  • About Endlessness
    Review preview for About Endlessness

    There is more melancholy in About Endlessness, however, than in his preceding 'Living Trilogy', as despite moments of humour and hopefulness, its dominant themes are regret and loss.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    Guided by a Scheherazade-like narrator, the film reflects on human life through a series of vignettes - from war-torn Cologne to smaller incidents like the tying of shoelaces.
  • Babyteeth
    Review preview for Babyteeth

    Milla might be dying but she's also, paradoxically, finding her way in the world and working out what she wants, even if time is short.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    Comedy, sees a family whose seriously ill daughter falls for a drug dealer discover that it might not be such a terrible thing after all.
  • Waiting For The Barbarians
    Review preview for Waiting For The Barbarians

    Rylance is superb throughout in a role perfectly suited to his talents.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A magistrate in a colonial town suffers a crisis of conscience about the regime he works for.
  • Ema
    Review preview for Ema

    Di Girolamo has a compelling intensity in the role but it's still hard to believe that everyone would fall quite so hard and fast for Ema's devil may care charms and unpredictability, especially with so much on the line.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    A dancer and her choreographer husband find themselves trying to stop their lives falling apart after an adoption goes awry.
  • Moffie
    Review preview for Moffie

    Brummer is the perfect choice to play Nick.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    Drama following a conscript through his military service in the South African Defence Force in the 1980s.

A–Z of Venice Film Festival 2019 reviews

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