The Venice Film Festival is hosting premieres of several notable films on Tuesday, including a documentary by director Alex Gibney about Elon Musk, a psychological thriller starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, and a new drama directed by Casey Affleck.
اضافة اعلان
Musk runs nearly four hours, with an intermission, and offers a portrait of the world's richest man while examining the extent of his power and influence.
Gibney, an Oscar winner, has previously tackled influential figures and institutions in his films, from Enron and Elizabeth Holmes to Scientology.
Gibney told the Associated Press that he began working on the film with a degree of admiration for Musk, and had hoped Musk would agree to be interviewed for it.
"In the end, he didn't want to talk to me," he said. "After that, you start digging into the facts and following them wherever they lead. For me, that led to a place that flips the mythologized image of Elon Musk as a kind of modern-day Leonardo da Vinci."
The film is set to open in North American theaters this October.
Cruz and Bardem, Married on Screen
Real-life couple Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem star together in their new film Bunker, directed by Florian Zeller.
The film follows an architect who agrees to build a survival bunker for a billionaire, a decision that has repercussions for his own marriage.
Zeller said he wrote the film specifically for the two stars, who have appeared together in a number of works since Jamón Jamón.
In the director's statement, Zeller explained that Bunker touches on several contemporary issues, from fear of the future and environmental threats to rising social inequality and individualism, but approaches them through a deeply personal lens: a conflict between a married couple.
He added that he wanted to explore love, loyalty, and forgiveness, while keeping the audience in a state of deliberate ambiguity.
The film also stars Stephen Graham, Paul Dano, and Patrick Schwarzenegger, and is set to be released in theaters by Searchlight Pictures early next year.
The film is part of the official competition alongside works including Wild Horse Nine and Ink, and is considered a potential contender for the festival's awards, with an awards-qualifying release expected sometime in 2026.
Zeller's earlier film The Father earned Anthony Hopkins the Best Actor Oscar, while Zeller himself won the Oscar for Best Screenplay.
Casey Affleck Reflects on Grief and Compassion
Also among the premieres is Company, a film exploring grief and compassion, directed by Casey Affleck, who also co-wrote the screenplay.
The story is set in the winter of 1975, when a mysterious woman disrupts a holiday gathering, before the narrative shifts toward a moral dilemma at its center.
In the director's statement, Affleck said he spent much of his life "keeping score and counting things," before realizing that balance isn't something the world provides, but something a person has to create for themselves, adding that this is the idea the film tries to approach.
Company is also competing for the Golden Lion, and stars Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn, alongside Affleck's own children, Atticus Affleck and Indiana Affleck.
The festival's award winners, chosen by a jury led by Maggie Gyllenhaal, are set to be announced on Saturday.
