Angelina Jolie Triumphs, Sexy Movies Return

Angelina Jolie got her flowers. Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson got it on. And studios and streamers got busy playing “let’s make a deal.”

The Venice Film Festival, which kicked off on Aug. 28, hasn’t been short on drama, even as it’s been unexpectedly heavy on TV. As befits a glamorous celebration of movies that’s all about excess, this year’s edition has seen more major sales, on-screen sex, politics (on and off the red carpet), and movie-star moments than ever. In addition to Jolie and Kidman, A-listers like Jude Law of “The Order” and the “Wolfs” duo of George Clooney and Brad Pitt flashed their megawatt smiles at the splashy premieres of their films. There promises to be plenty more headline-grabbing events, but as the festival reaches its midpoint, it’s already shaping up to be one of the most consequential in recent memory.

TV Crashes the Lido
Venice is an essential stop for movies looking to generate Oscar heat, but this year the festival is raising the profile of some 2025 Emmy contenders. The Venice lineup was awash in auteur directors and movie stars dipping their toes into small-screen waters. Chief among them was “Disclaimer,” Alfonso Cuarón’s erotically charged psychological thriller for Apple TV+, which stars Cate Blanchett as a documentary maker whose past comes back to haunt her. The steamy first four episodes received a rapturous reception on the second day of the fest, earning a five-minute standing ovation.

Cuarón isn’t the only filmmaker to make the leap to episodic entertainment. He was joined by fellow Oscar winner Thomas Vinterberg, who unveiled the climate-change drama “Families Like Ours,” his first project since “Another Round.” Meanwhile, Joe Wright brought things closer to home with “M. Son of the Century,” his biopic series about Benito Mussolini, Italy’s notorious wartime dictator. Moving to television has allowed Cuarón, Vinterberg and Wright more room to realize their epic visions, but it’s also a sign of the greater freedom and financing available there at a time when the movie business is retracting.

Palestinian Directors Sound Off
Unlike Cannes or Berlin, which always seem consumed with politics, Venice has rarely been a platform for protests or activism. And yet, the ongoing devastation in Gaza has led to a charged atmosphere. On the first day of the festival, a letter signed by more than 300 filmmakers, actors, writers and musicians was released that condemned the inclusion of two Israeli films in the Venice lineup — “Of Dogs and Men” and “Why War.” They claimed the pictures were made by companies involved in “whitewashing Israel’s oppression against Palestinians.” The letter writers urged the festival not to “program productions” they said were complicit in human rights abuses. Earlier in the day, another letter was released — signed by almost 70 Palestinian filmmakers, including Hany Abu-Assad, Elia Suleiman and Farah Nabulsi — that took a broader swipe, accusing Hollywood of “dehumanizing” Palestinian people for decades, something they said has helped enable the current bloodshed in Gaza.

Bringing Sexy Back
Festivalgoers have been dealing with a brutal heat wave, but those looking to cool off in an air-conditioned theater were out of luck. That’s because this year’s lineup is filled with steamy, sexually charged movies that are causing temperatures to rise in Venice. It’s an erotic assembly of films that includes “Babygirl,” starring Kidman as a high-powered CEO having a torrid affair with an intern (Dickinson), and Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer,” which features Daniel Craig as a lonely American expat in his late 40s who becomes obsessed with a much younger man. In addition to those May-December sizzle-fests, Cuarón’s “Disclaimer” is unabashedly erotic, which shouldn’t be all that surprising given the battle that the director’s “Y Tu Mamá También” faced with censors when it was released 20 years ago. In the ensuing decades, Hollywood, which once flooded multiplexes with explicit thrillers like “Basic Instinct” and “Fatal Attraction,” stopped making those kinds of films. However, given what’s on display at Venice, we may be overdue for a surge in on-screen nudity.

Ready, Set, Spend!
All-night bidding wars are a staple of Sundance and the Toronto Film Festival, but not so much at Venice, which has been seen as the perfect place to host lavish premieres for movies that are sold elsewhere. But that’s not the case this year, as studios and streamers packed their checkbooks. Just as the fest kicked off, two of the buzziest films of the competition, “Maria” and “Queer,” sold to Netflix and A24, respectively. And they’re not the only titles that may leave Italy having secured distribution. “The Brutalist,” a sprawling historical epic with Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, as well “Vermiglio,” an Italian drama set against the backdrop of World War II, are both drawing interest from studios.

Angelina Hits All the Right Notes
It’s been years since Jolie had a role worthy of her talent. But that’s about to change with her latest film, “Maria,” in which she plays legendary diva Maria Callas. The film dazzled critics, earned a thunderous ovation and generated awards buzz for its star. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman raved that Jolie “reminds you that she can be a deadly serious actor of commanding subtlety and power.” And he’s not alone, with other reviewers praising her for humanizing the tempestuous singer and showing how Callas’ fame became a kind of prison. That’s a fate that Jolie, who has been hounded by the paparazzi and the tabloids for decades, understands all too well. Only with “Maria,” this time the attention is shifting away from Jolie’s celebrity and back to her art.