FNE asked Agnieszka Holland how it felt to be back in Venice after her Special Jury Prize win in Venice for Green Border in 2023.

VENICE: The 81st Venice Film Festival got off to a glittering start with a star studded opening ceremony on Wednesday evening 28 August. After the actors and writers strike of 2023 left the festival mostly without any American star talent, the return of Hollywood stars to the Lido was all the more impressive.

FNE asked Pascal Diot how the Venice Production Bridge has evolved since it started nine years ago.

CANNES: Russian film and theatre director Kirill Serebrennikov’s Limonov-The Ballad screens in competition at this year’s Cannes Festival.

CANNES: American director and screenwriter Paul Schrader’s Oh Canada screens in competition in Cannes. The story is based on the novel Foregone, the next to the last book by author Russell Banks.

CANNES: Legendary American director Francis Ford Coppola arrives in Cannes for the competition screening of his long awaited film epic Megalopolis.

CANNES: Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos hot from his 11 Oscar nominations for Poor Things is in competition with Kinds of Kindness, a three part fable. The director has teamed up again with leading actress and muse Emma Stone, who won the Oscar for Best Actress for Poor Things. His 2018 black comedy The Favourite, starring Emma Stone alongside Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz, won the Grand Jury Prize at the 75th Venice International Film Festival.

CANNES: Three years after screening in the main competition in Cannes with his film Red Rocket the American director Sean Baker is back in the Cannes competition with his new film Anora.

BERLIN: German director Tilman Singer’s German/USA coproduction Cuckoo screens in a Berlinale Special Gala at this year’s festival. Singer also wrote the script.  

BERLIN: Sasquatch Sunset directed by brothers Nathan and David Zellner screens as Berlinale Special and it is indeed difficult to categorise the very special film that is totally without dialogue. The film follows up on the Zellner brothers short film Sasquatch Birth Journal 2.