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Is Venice still vibrating from all the rounds of applause?
It’s become customary for audiences at the festival’s premieres to clap and cheer for a seeming eternity after the credits roll. (Often to the visible discomfort of the actors and filmmakers, who look like they don’t know what to do with themselves when the hurrahs rage into double digits.) Call it a Champagne (or Aperol spritz — we’re in Italy, after all) problem for stars John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell and director Martin McDonagh, whose dark comedy “Wild Horse Nine” was embraced with a rousing 13-minute standing ovation inside the Lido’s famed Palazzo del Cinema. But that didn’t turn out to be the festival’s biggest reception — later in the week, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem received 15.5 minutes of applause for their marriage-in-crisis drama “Bunker, and on Thursday, Gaza documentary “NAZA” was greeted with a massive 24.5 minutes, the longest of any recorded ovation at a major film festival.
And for all the complaints that Hollywood has basically abandoned film festivals, there was no shortage of celebrities to elicit big reactions from crowds. Robert Pattinson (“Primetime”), Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem (“Bunker”) and Oasis’ Liam and Noel Gallagher (“Don’t Look Back in Anger”) were among the boldface names hoping to turn festival kudos into awards chatter or box office plaudits.
As Venice wraps up and festivalgoers take their last bites of pasta and sips of spritzes, here are takeaways from the floating city.
George Clooney Steals the Show
Only Clooney could become the talk of the fest without even having a movie to promote. The A-lister traveled to Venice not for a new project but to receive the prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. (If that has a familiar ring, Clooney played a movie star who accepts a career honor in Italy in last year’s “Jay Kelly.”) Indeed, Clooney was everywhere this year, making appearances at a press conference, the opening-night ceremony and a master class. He had a lot to say about the power of art in times of turmoil, the importance of free speech and the fraying state of democracy. And he found time to teach festivalgoers a new term: “There’s a great word, kakistocracy, which is a country run by the least qualified people. I think maybe we have a kakistocracy right now, but we’ll get through it.” We believe you, George!
Malkovich Storms Into the Oscar Race
Get ready to see a lot of Malkovich. The beloved character actor is drumming up awards buzz for “Wild Horse Nine,” in which he plays an eccentric CIA agent reflecting on his life. McDonagh has a pretty good track record of getting his actors from the Lido to the Academy Awards. Rockwell and Frances McDormand won Oscars for 2017’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” while Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson were nominated for 2022’s “The Banshees of Inisherin,” both of which bowed in Venice. Recognition feels long overdue for Malkovich, whose last nomination was more than three decades ago, for 1993’s “In the Line of Fire.” Matt Damon and Tom Cruise, you might have some competition…
Politics, Politics, Politics
Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera wasn’t exaggerating when he called this year’s lineup “the most political ever.” The 83rd edition was packed with films about hot-button issues like right-wing media barons (“Ink”), right-wing trolls (“Musk”), conflict in the Middle East (“NAZA”) and ICE (“They’re Here”). Offscreen, it’s become de rigueur to probe actors and directors at film festivals about the state of the world — a conversation that escalated at Berlin after jury president Wim Wenders said filmmakers should “stay out of politics.” Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is presiding over the Venice jury, disagrees. At the jury press conference, she called movies “fundamentally, unavoidably political” and challenged people to “hear stories about the most corrupt, most perverse people.” Her reasoning? “It opens up the opportunity to find empathy.”
A Record-Breaking Embrace
Audiences, for their part, seem just fine with politics at the forefront. “NAZA,” a devastating exposé about the systems behind the Israeli military’s remote killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, elicited the longest standing ovation in film festival history. (Or, at least since journalists began reporting on the trend.) The documentary was met with 24.5 minutes of applause, surpassing the ovation for last year’s Gaza-set drama “The Voice of Hind Rajab” and that of Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” at Cannes in 2006, both of which clocked in at 22 minutes. Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor are two of the four filmmakers behind 2025’s Oscar-winning doc “No Other Land.” Given the warm reception for and timeliness of “NAZA,” will the duo find themselves back in the awards conversation?
Where Are the Women?
Gyllenhaal may be jury president, but she’s just as confused as everyone else about the dearth of women-directed films in the main competition lineup. (She didn’t select the movies, after all.) Only two titles up for the Golden Lion — “Woman Unknown,” a drama by May el-Toukhy, and “NAZA,” with Szor co-helming — were directed by women. “I guess it’s finally become clear that men make better movies than women do,” Gyllenhaal deadpanned at her press conference. In all seriousness, though, she puts the blame on the powers that be. “There’s a systemic problem,” she said. “It’s harder for women to get films financed.”
A Star Is Born
Lance Oppenheim, the 30-year-old director known for non-fiction work like “Some Kind of Heaven” and HBO’s “Ren Faire,” emerged as a major talent to watch. A24’s “Primetime,” his debut feature film, was one of the buzziest of the festival, scoring an enthusiastic seven minutes of applause as audiences embraced Pattinson’s immersive performance as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen. And that was just the fanfare on the Lido. The next day in Colorado, Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder unveiled their top-secret documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, titled “You Can See Everything,” which became the talk of Telluride Film Festival. It’s safe to say Oppenheim will be getting plenty of use out of his tuxedo over the next few months.
Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot
This year’s hottest accessory? Electronic and handheld fans. Temperatures on the Lido were sweltering, which left A-listers on the verge of overheating on the red carpet. At their respective premieres, Jack O’Connell (“Ink”) had to take off his thick Dunhill coat before blotting the moisture on his face and shirt; Parker Posey (“Wild Horse Nine”) continuously waved herself with a decorative fan while mouthing about the brutal heat during the movie’s long standing ovation; and Pattinson (“Primetime”), wearing a suave all-white suit, dabbed the sweat off his forehead with napkins before posing for a cast photo. Stars, they’re just like us!
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