VENICE, Italy \u2014 The Venice Film Festival is kicking off with the world premiere of Paolo Sorrentino\u2019s \u201cLa Grazia\u201d on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
The 82nd edition of the glamourous international film festival is playing host to many Hollywood stars, including George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Dwayne Johnson, and famed auteurs, from Guillermo del Toro to Kathryn Bigelow, who all have films debuting over the next 10 days. The conflict in Gaza has also already been an everpresent topic both outside the festival’s walls, where protesters gathered, and during the news conferences.<\/p>\n
The festival, which takes place on the Lido, chose to open with the newest film from one of Italy\u2019s most revered working filmmakers. \u201cLa Grazia\u201d stars Sorrentino\u2019s longtime collaborator Toni Servillo as a fictional Italian president who is paralyzed by indecision near the end of his term, grappling with signing a bill that allows euthanasia and mourning his late wife.<\/p>\n
Sorrentino said that he was inspired to write the film by a real case of an Italian president who pardoned a man that had killed his wife, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s. The title of the film, can be translated to \u201cthe pardon\u201d in English, he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a moral dilemma that was interesting to tell,\u201d Sorrentino said. \u201cI have thought for years that moral dilemmas are very interesting for storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera told The Associated Press that \u201cLa Grazia\u201d took them by surprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a different Sorrentino from what we are used to,\u201d Barbera said. \u201cFar less baroque and formalistic than the previous films he made. It\u2019s a very unexpected story.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Film posters outside the Excelsior hotel ahead of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. Credit: AP\/Alessandra Tarantino<\/p>\n
Sorrentino, best known for his Oscar-winning film \u201cThe Great Beauty,\u201d made his debut at the Venice Film Festival 24 years ago with the film \u201cOne Man Up.\u201d He also won the Silver Lion prize in 2021 for \u201cThe Hand of God,\u201d which went on to be nominated for an Oscar. Many films that premiere at Venice go on to Oscar nominations and wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cLa Grazia\u201d is one of the 21 films playing in the festival\u2019s main competition. Other titles vying for the prestigious Golden Lion prize include del Toro\u2019s \u201cFrankenstein,\u201d Bigelow\u2019s \u201cA House of Dynamite,\u201d Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019s \u201cBugonia,\u201d Benny Safdie\u2019s \u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d and Kaouther Ben Hania\u2019s \u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab.” <\/p>\n
Winners are decided on by a jury of international filmmakers and actors, including \u201cSideways\u201d director Alexander Payne and Brazilian actor Fernanda Torres. Payne, who is president of this year’s jury, said he arrived to Venice yesterday and was soon seated next to Francis Ford Coppola watching a restoration of a 1920s silent film.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018I\u2019m in heaven,\u201d Payne said. \u201cThis is heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A view of the main cinema ahead of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. Credit: AP\/Alessandra Tarantino<\/p>\n
News about the real world has also been top of mind at the festival, where steps away from the main headquarters, anti-war protesters gathered earlier Wednesday to turn the spotlight to Gaza. A march is also planned for Saturday evening.<\/p>\n
Martina Vergnano, an activist with the Social Centers of the Northeast, one of the protest organizers, said hundreds of associations, social centers and film festival participants had signed onto the petition to participate in the protest Saturday. Vergnano spoke in front of the red carpet alongside about a dozen protesters flying Palestinian flags and holding a banner that read: \u201cFree Palestine, Stop the Genocide\u201d with the time and date of Saturday\u2019s protest.<\/p>\n
There have been calls to disinvite actors like Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler from attending the festival for their views, but Barbera said that the festival does not boycott artists, nor does it make political statements. <\/p>\n
Sorrentino, who recently called the situation in Gaza a \u201cgenocide\u201d was asked about Mubi, the company that is distributing his film. Mubi, the indie film shop behind last year’s \u201cThe Substance,\u201d has come under scrutiny because of funder Sequoia Capital’s ties to the Israeli military. The filmmaker redirected the floor to \u201csomebody from Mubi,” who declined to speak. A moderator redirected the conversation back to the film.<\/p>\n
Payne also faced questions Wednesday afternoon about the conflict and Hollywood’s responsibility to address it. <\/p>\n
\u201cI feel a little bit unprepared for that question,\u201d Payne said. \u201cI\u2019m here to judge and talk about cinema.\u201d<\/p>\n
The festival runs through Sept. 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VENICE, Italy \u2014 The Venice Film Festival is kicking off with the world premiere of Paolo Sorrentino\u2019s \u201cLa…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":179799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[51353,1582,276,171,2961,224,5337,53,10190],"class_list":{"0":"post-179798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ap-a-wire","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-losangeles","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115100937378694008","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}