81st Venice Film Festival 2024

Review by Max Markowitz

The 81st Venice Film Festival was the trip of a lifetime. Venice is truly as exhilaratingly beautiful as people say, just like in the movies! Sunset gondola rides, culinary Italian masterpieces for dinner every night (my favorite pictured below), and a week-long stay at a charming Airbnb in a snug hidden alley in the heart of a beautiful Venice town square.

The film festival was my entire reason for going as Venice next to Cannes is the most famous film festival in the entire world. The chance to see it in gigantic screenings was a fairytale come true. The audiences were so enthusiastic and brought a warmth and sentimentality a true cinephile can only detect at film festivals. So many stars showed up to roaring cheers and long-standing ovations. I enjoyed seeing Vincent Lindon and Angelina Jolie in person from afar. The cinema this year was superb and I’m so excited for everything I saw to come to the U.S. so audiences can see and discuss passionately and openly.

I saw 10 screenings of 9 different bodies of work. Babygirl, The Brutalist, Disclaimer, Diva Futura, Joker: Folie a Deux, Maria, Queer, The Quiet Son and The Room Next Door are all so eternally different from one another but what these 9 films all have in common is an overwhelming urge to speak various truths about our societal distress and get audiences in various corners across the world talking, feeling and activating on a quest for change. From sexual repression and the toxicity of censorship to ideology in violence, anti-Semitism, and society's failure toward those struggling with mental health, the range of topics that this year’s lineup explores leaves no room for any doubt on the profound extremity of the countless situations at hand. The performances are riveting and powerful, the cinematography shots chilling, tranquil, and focused, and the music haunting, gentle, and melancholy. One element that always stood out was the realization that actors can’t just be great by themselves, they need to maintain their level of excellence with their costars and every single film had the most chemistry-induced casts and duets.

Most congratulations to all the actors, filmmakers, and crew for their tremendous work, a special shout out of gratitude for the security at the theaters for keeping things moving along throughout the transition of audiences, keeping us all safe, and kindly answering any questions those like me who’d never been to a Venice screening before may have had. I also congratulate Pedro Almodovar for winning the Golden Lion for his gentle and passionate The Room Next Door, Vincent Lindon & Nicole Kidman for their Volpi Cup wins for The Quiet Son & Babygirl, and the head of this year’s jury, Isabelle Huppert, for a job well done and for stressing the importance of festivals.

I look forward to seeing some of these magnificent films again when I serve as film ambassador to AKA hotels+hotel residences at the upcoming 33rd Philadelphia Film Festival this October. I’m excited for audiences worldwide to soak in the excellence of all these amazing films. Congrats to Venice on another very successful year and thank you for doing your part in contributing to the art of cinema!