The Venice Film Festival program includes ‘Joker 2’, more

By: Jessica Ann Evangelista – 14 minutes ago

The Venice Film Festival program includes “Joker 2.” This image, released by Warner Bros. Pictures, shows Joaquin Phoenix, left, and Lady Gaga in a scene from “Joker: Folie à Deux.” (Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

Five years after “Joker” won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, filmmaker Todd Phillips is returning with the sequel. “Joker: Folie à Deux” will compete with 20 other titles, festival organizers announced Tuesday, July 23.

In the long-awaited sequel to the hit comic book adaptation, Joaquin Phoenix plays the mentally ill Arthur Fleck and Lady Gaga takes on the role of Harley Quinn.

The line-up for the 81st edition of the festival, which was announced on Tuesday morning, also includes new films starring Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Jude Law.

Among the films in competition alongside “Joker 2” are Pablo Larraín’s Maria Callas film “Maria,” starring Jolie; Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here”; filmmaker Halina Reijn’s erotic thriller “Babygirl,” starring Kidman and Harris Dickinson;

Luca Guadagnino’s William S. Burrough’s adaptation “Queer,” starring Craig and Jason Schwartzman; and Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language film, “The Room Next Door,” starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton. The filmmaker has said it’s set in New England and about an imperfect mother and a resentful daughter.

“The Order,” Justin Kurzel’s 1980s crime thriller about the white supremacist group starring Law as an FBI agent, Nicholas Hoult and Jurnee Smollett, is also in the running, as is Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” starring Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones and Joe Alwyn. The 215-minute epic was shot on 70mm and centers on a Hungarian Auschwitz survivor who makes his way to the United States.

Pitt and Clooney will reunite in Jon Watts’ “Wolfs,” an adrenaline-fueled action film about a pair of fixers, which will air out of competition.

This image, released by Sony Pictures, shows Brad Pitt (left) and George Clooney in a scene from “Wolfs.” (Scott Garfield/Columbia-Sony Pictures via AP)

The additional Horizons section features several interesting films, including ‘September 5’, about the live television coverage of the Olympic Games in Munich, starring Peter Sarsgaard; John Swab’s ‘King Ivory’, starring Ben Foster and James Badge Dale; and Alex Ross Perry’s film about Stephen Malkmus’ Californian rock band Pavement.

Venice will also see the screening of Peter Weir’s 2003 epic “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,” in conjunction with the presentation of his Lifetime Achievement Award.

Seven episodes of Alfonso Cuarón’s psychological thriller series “Disclaimer” will also premiere at the festival. The AppleTV+ show is based on a novel about a documentary journalist and a secret she’s been hiding. It stars Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline and debuts on the streamer in October.

Among the nonfiction titles playing out of competition are Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards’ “One to One: John & Yoko,” which recreates the New York years of the Beatle and his wife; Errol Morris’ “Separated,” about the separation of immigrant children from their parents in the U.S.; Anastasia Trofimova’s “Russians at War”; Göran Hugo Olsson’s “Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989”; “Riefenstahl,” about the German propagandist; and another Beatles-focused documentary, “The Things We Said Today,” a time capsule of their arrival in New York and first concert at Shea Stadium.

Last year, the festival was held during the actors’ strike. While some attended under interim agreements, such as Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz for “Ferrari” and “Priscilla” stars Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, the festival lacked the usual consistent supply of star power. But the awards season’s influence remained strong: seven world premieres in Venice yielded 24 Oscar nominations and five wins: four for “Poor Things” and one for Wes Anderson’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.”