Venice Film Festival Opens With Star Power Amid Gaza Protests

The 82nd Venice Film Festival opened on Wednesday on the Lido with a star-studded slate of world premieres and a backdrop of political protest, underscoring a season in which cinema, commerce and geopolitics are colliding on one of the industrys biggest stages. Running through September 6, the festival launched with Paolo Sorrentinos La Grazia and a ceremony in which Francis Ford Coppola presented Werner Herzog with a lifetime achievement award, even as pro-Palestinian demonstrators unfurled banners and urged the festival to take a stronger public stance on the Gaza war.

Organizers billed this edition as one of Venices most densely packed with high-profile entries. The Competition lineup includes Yorgos Lanthimoss sci-fi satire Bugonia, Noah Baumbachs Jay Kelly, Guillermo del Toros Frankenstein, Kathryn Bigelows political thriller A House of Dynamite, Benny Safdies The Smashing Machine, and new films from Jim Jarmusch, Olivier Assayas and Park Chan-wook. Out of Competition and Orizzonti sections add work from Luca Guadagnino, Sofia Coppola and Werner Herzog, whose new documentary Ghost Elephants will receive a planned theatrical release before streaming distribution, organizers...