Luc Besson, Bertrand Bonello, and Stéphane Brizé will fly the French colors in Competition of the 80th edition of the Venice International Film Festival , packed with French films. Find out more about this year's edition, which runs from August 30 to September 9.
While Luc Besson and Bertrand Bonello have never been in competition at Venice, Stéphane Brizé has, having presented A Woman's Life and Another World. All three directors will be representing France at the 80th edition of the world's oldest festival, with highly anticipated films.
The French selection will be complemented by three minority-French productions: The Captain by Matteo Garrone, The Green Border by Agnieszka Holland, and Holly by Fien Troch.
- Dogman by Luc Besson is the story of a man wounded by life (played by American actor Caleb Landry Jones), who finds salvation in the love his dogs show him.
- The Beast by Bertrand Bonello evokes the intimate connection between a woman and a man, played by Léa Seydoux et George Mackay, over three periods, one of which is set in 2044.
- Out of Season by Stéphane Brizé tells the story of a chance reunion between two former lovers (Guillaume Canet and Alba Rohrwacher), fifteen years after their separation.
This fine trio of films will be completed, out of competition, by a second trio of films: Daaaaaalí!, Quentin Dupieux's latest crazy venture Making of, the second film this year by Cédric Kahn (after The Goldman Case in Cannes), and On the Pulse, the third film by Alix Delaporte, a regular at Venice, where she presented Angèle et Tony at International Critics' Week and The Last Hammer Blow in Competition in 2014.
In the Orizzonti section, we will discover the debut film Céline Rouzet, For Night Will Come (starring Élodie Bouchez and Céleste Brunnquell), and City of Wind, by the Mongolian director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, a film majority-co-produced by France.
In Orizzonti Extra (out of competition), The Dreamer by Anaïs Tellenne and Phantom Youth, the new film by comedienne Luàna Bajrami, will complete the French presence.
French audiovisual works are also in the spotlight at Venice 2023: the 12-episode French series Of Money and Blood by Xavier Giannoli and Frédéric Planchon, is one of two series selected in the "Series - Out of Competition" category. It's a Canal+ series starring Vincent Lindon, Niels Schneider, and Ramzy Bedia, adapted from Fabrice Arfi's book (2018) about "the heist of the century", as the carbon quota VAT fraud was dubbed.
On the short-film side, three French films are presented in the Orrizonti competition and one in a special screening.
- Wissam Charaf's new short film, If the Sun Drowned Into an Ocean of Clouds.
- An animated film directed by Nina Gantz: Wander to Wonder, produced by Les Productions de Milou.
- The second short film by Albanian director Erenik Beqiri, who, four years after his multi-award-winning short The Van, returns with A Short Trip (produced by oriGine films).
- Céline Sciamma's This is How a Child Becomes a Poet will be presented as a special screening in the Venice Days section.
The French selection of works presented at Venice VR can be found in a detailed article here.
Finally, to round off the official selection, the Venice Classics section will see the very first screening of a restored version of Agnès Varda's Bonheur, as well as two French documentaries, one about Michel Gondry (Michel Gondry - Do It Yourself), the other about Alfred Hitchcock (Le Film pro nazi d'Hitchcock).
French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve will be a member of the official jury, presided over by Damien Chazelle. Jean-Paul Salomé will be a member of the Orizzonti jury, and Alice Diop will chair the international jury responsible for awarding the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film – Lion of the Future.
--> The full selection can be found here
French artistic delegation
The following are already expected at this year's event (subject to change): Stéphane Brizé, Marie Drucker, Guillaume Canet, Alba Rohrwacher, Bertrand Bonello, Léa Seydoux, Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, Anaïs Tellenne, Emmanuelle Devos, Raphaël Thiéry, Adrien Beau, Kacey Mottet Klein, Ariane Labed, Vassili Schneider, Grégoire Colin, Sébastien Vaniček, Théo Christine, Finnegan Oldfield, Sofia Lesaffre, Élise Girard, Isabelle Huppert, August Diehl, Lina Soualem, Hiam Abbass.
As every year, Unifrance will be organising a cocktail party in honour of the French films selected, and in particular for foreign distributors. It will take place on Saturday 2 September (by reservation only), from 6pm to 8pm.
The 38th International Critics' Week will open and close with two first French films (or majority-French co-produced films): the opening film, Andrès Peyrot's God Is a Woman, recounts the return to Panama of a team of filmmakers fifty years after the shooting of a documentary that has since been lost. Closing the program is Sébastien Vaniček's Vermin, which tells the story of a housing estate taken over by deadly spiders, and is sure to make arachnophobes scream.
The selection includes Vourdalak, the debut feature by Adrien Beau, a period vampire film based on a Slavic legend, starring Ariane Labed and Kacey Mottet Klein.
Ava Cahen, artistic director of Cannes' Critics' Week, will be a member of the official jury.
--> The full Critics' Week selection can be found here
For its 20th edition, Venice's last parallel selection, Giornati degli Autori, will feature Élise Girard's Sidonie in Japan, starring Isabelle Huppert, as well as several French co-productions and a "surprise" short film by Céline Sciamma, This is How a Child Becomes a Poet. She will also chair the jury for the Giornate degli Autori 2023 Competition.
--> The full Giornati degli Autori selection can be found here
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All the French films (and French co-productions) presented at the Venice International Film Festival 2023, and in the parallel sections
Official Selection
Competition
- Dogman by Luc Besson
- Out of Season by Stéphane Brizé
- The Beast by Bertrand Bonello
- The Green Border by Agnieszka Holland (minority-French co-production)
- The Captain by Matteo Garrone (minority-French co-production)
- Holly by Fien Troch
Out of competition
- Daaaaaalí! by Quentin Dupieux
- Making of by Cédric Kahn
- On the Pulse by Alix Delaporte
- The Palace by Roman Polanski (minority-French co-production)
Audiovisual program - Series
Orizzonti
- City of Wind by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir
- For Night Will Come by Céline Rouzet
- Hesitation Wound by Selman Nacar (minority-French co-production)
- Heartless by Nara Normande (minority-French co-production)
- Dormitory by Nehir Tuna (minority-French co-production)
- Behind the Mountains by Mohamed Ben Attia (minority-French co-production)
Orizzonti Extra
- The Dreamer by Anaïs Tellenne
- Phantom Youth by Luàna Bajrami (French co-production shares not specified)
Orizzonti (short films)
- A Short Trip by Erenik Beqiri
- Wander to Wonder by Nina Gantz
- If the Sun Drowned Into an Ocean of Clouds by Wissam Charaf
Venezia Classici
- Michel Gondry - Do It Yourself by François Nemeta
- Le Film pro nazi d'Hitchcock by Daphné Baiwir
- The Creatures by Agnès Varda (restored version)
- Deep Crimson by Arturo Ripstein - Director's Cut (French-minority coproduction)
Venice Immersive
- Peupler by Maya Mouawad and Cyril Laurier
- Emperor by Marion Burger and Ilan Cohen
- Flow VR by Adriaan Lokman
- Wallace & Gromit - The Grand Getaway by Finbar Hawkins, Bram Twheam, and Lawrence Benett
Short films - Venice VR out of competition
- Another Fisherman's Tale by Alexis Moroz and Balthazar Auxietre
- Gaudí, the Atelier of the Divine by Stéphane Landowski and Gaël Cabouat
- Human Violins by Iona Mischie
International Critics' Week
Opening film
Official Selection
Closing film
Giornate degli Autori - Venice Days
Selection
- Sidonie in Japan by Élise Girard
- Foremost by Night by Víctor Iriarte (French co-production shares not specified)
- Backstage by Afef Ben Mahmoud, Khalil Benkirane (French co-production shares not specified)
- Through the Night by Delphine Girard (minority-French co-production)
Special Events
- Le Soleil se lèvera by Ayat Najafi
- Bye bye Tiberias by Lina Soualem
- The Zola Experience by Gianluca Matarrese (French co-production shares not specified)
Venice Nights
Short films - Special Events
Media Gallery
