SOMEWHERE (Sofia Coppola)

The world premieres are coming strong and fast for the Fall film season as the Venice Film Festival has announced a particularly stellar competition section. For North Americans not making the trip to the Lido, many of these films will receive their North American premieres at the Toronto Film Festival a week later in September (the two festivals actually overlap for a few days on the first weekend of September).

Twenty-two films have been set to compete for the coveted Golden Lion, which in the recent past has been awarded to Samuel Maoz’s “Lebanon,” Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” and Ang Lee’s “Lust, Caution.”  American productions were very well represented, with new works from Sofia Coppola, Kelly Reichardt, Vincent Gallo, Darren Aronofsky and cult figure Monte Hellman. Other highlights included new works from Julian Schnabel, Francois Ozon, Saverio Costanzo, Abdellatif Kechiche, Takashi Miike, Tom Tykwer and Álex de la Iglesia. Interestingly, a film widely expected to appear on the list, Terrance Malick’s “The Tree of Life,” was not announced in the lineup, though Venice has said one more title will be added to the competition mid-way through the fest.

The festival also announced numerous films screening out of competition.  Included were Ben Affleck’s “The Town,” his brother Casey Affleck’s Joaquin Phoenix documentary “I’m Still Here,” and Robert Rodriquez’s “Machete,” which will screen at Midnight on opening night.

The complete list of announced competition titles is listed below.

“Attenberg,” Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece
“Barney’s Version,” Richard J. Lewis, Canada/Italy
“Black Swan,” Darren Aronofsky, USA
“Black Venus,” Abdellatif Kechiche, France
“Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame,” Tsui Hark, China
“Happy Few,” Antony Cordier, France
“Meek’s Cutoff,” Kelly Reichardt, USA
“Miral,” Julian Schnabel, USA/France/Italy/Israel
“Noi Credevamo,” Mario Martone, Italy
“Norwegian Wood,” Anh Hung Tran, Japan
“La Passione,” Carlo Mazzacurati, Italy
“La Pecora Nera,” Ascanio Celestini, Italy
“Post Mortem,” Pablo Lerrain, Chile
“Potiche,” Francois Ozon, France
“Promises Written in Water,” Vincent Gallo, USA
“Road to Nowhere,” Monte Hellman, USA
“A Sad Trumpet Ballad,” Álex de la Iglesia, Spain
“Silent Souls,” Aleksei Fedorchenko, Russia
“The Solitude of Prime Numbers,” Saverio Costanzo, Italy
“Somewhere,” Sofia Coppola, USA
“13 Assassins,” Takashi Miike, Japan
“Three,” Tom Tykwer, Germany 

 Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Circuit Editor