Venice Film Festival Shines with Clooney, Stone Premieres

The 82nd Venice Film Festival ignited with star power as George Clooney and Emma Stone headlined the world premieres of Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly and Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia on Thursday evening, both vying for the prestigious Golden Lion prize. The festival, running through September 6, showcases 21 films in competition, blending Hollywood glamour with global cinematic talent.

Clooney stars as a reflective actor in Jay Kelly, a Netflix-produced comedy-drama exploring life’s choices and sacrifices, joined by Adam Sandler as his manager, alongside Laura Dern, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, and Riley Keough. Baumbach, returning after his 2022 film White Noise, described the film as a personal journey of introspection. Meanwhile, Stone, fresh off her Oscar win for Lanthimos’s 2023 Golden Lion winner Poor Things, plays a pharmaceutical CEO mistaken for an alien in Bugonia, a sci-fi black comedy remake of a South Korean film, co-starring Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis.

The festival, which opened with Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia, also features Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein with Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite starring Idris Elba, and Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother with Adam Driver and Cate Blanchett. Asian cinema shines with Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice and Shu Qi’s directorial debut Nuhai. Netflix’s strong return includes three competition titles, signaling its Oscar ambitions, as past Golden Lion winners like Nomadland often secure Academy Award nominations.

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Stars like Julia Roberts, Dwayne Johnson, and Jude Law, who plays Vladimir Putin in The Wizard of the Kremlin, add to the Lido’s allure. With Werner Herzog receiving a Lifetime Achievement Golden Lion, the festival blends prestige and innovation, cementing its role as a key Oscars springboard.

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