Venice is hosting its first major film festival since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with organizers having to adapt to new circumstances. The lagoon-side Venice Film Festival is set to be far less glitzy this year, with a much reduced Hollywood presence, socially distanced film screenings and face masks to be worn throughout the premises on Sept. 2-12.
A spokesperson said the festival's opening and closing parties had been canceled and that some actors and directors would present their works in video-streamed news conferences, rather than in person.
For the artists that do attend, there will be little contact with fans clamoring for selfies, as a wall has been put up to separate the red carpet from the main street.
The festival officially kicks off Tuesday with a pre-opening screening of "Molecole" by Italy's Andrea Segre, a documentary set in virus-lockdown Venice.
The official program counts 63 films, including 18 running for the top Golden Lion prize, 21 out of competition and 19 in the sidebar Orizzonti section.
Here is a selection of 10 of the most interesting films premiering during the event:
"Nomadland," directed by Chloe Zhao, is seen as a 2021 Oscar-contender, showing how one woman changes her life when her town is hit by an economic downturn.
"Notturno," by Gianfranco Rosi, who picked up an award at the 2016 Berlinale with the Lampedusa-based "Fuocoammare," returns with a new documentary chronicling everyday life in Syria and other Middle East war zones.
"One Night in Miami," directed by Oscar-winning actress Regina King, presents a fictionalized account of a meeting between four African American icons – Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown.
Meanwhile, "Greta" documents the world-famous teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, director Nathan Grossman having followed her since the first day of her school strike, in August 2018.
"Mainstream" presents an internet-age love triangle directed by Gia Coppola and starring former "Spider-Man" Andrew Garfield, Uma Thurman and Maya Hawke.
"The Human Voice" is Pedro Almodovar's first English-language movie, a 30-minute-long piece based on a play by Jean Cocteau starring Tilda Swinton, who will this year be honored with a career award at the festival.
"The World to Come" is based on a critically-acclaimed short story by Jim Shepard and features Casey Affleck as actor and producer. The work centers on a 19th-century drama about two women on the East Coast of the U.S.
"Dear Comrades" presents legendary Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky's take on a real-life 1962 massacre on striking factory workers in the Soviet Union, kept secret until the 1990s.
"Crazy, Not Insane" is an Oscar-winning documentary from Alex Gibney, who follows the life of Dorothy Lewis, a psychiatrist who is trying to understand what motivates serial killers.
Meanwhile, in "Miss Marx," Italian director Susanna Nicchiarelli presents a biopic of Karl Marx's youngest daughter Eleanor, a socialist and feminist campaigner caught up in a tragic love story.
Furthermore, in the in-competition category of the festival, eight out of 18 of the films on show, including "Nomadland," are directed by women, reflecting the festival's efforts to respond to past criticism about the gender imbalance in its selections.
