Venice Film Festival: The Unruly Lion

And even that: a few days before the start of the 76th Venice Film Festival, the Australian director Jennifer Kent said her participation in the competition jury of the oldest film festival in the world. Not in protest against the sustainable stance of the festival against the zeitgeist, but for private reasons, as the industry newspaper "Indiewire" reported.

In the past year Kent had been the only woman in the Venice competition with her revenge drama "The Nightingale" - and had to be insulted in the press presentation by an angry visitor as a "whore". Her jury is now occupied by US filmmaker Mary Harron, who was only allowed to show her very good Manson Family movie "Charlie Says" in the minor section "Orizzonti" last year.

After all: The jury is also chaired by a woman: the world-renowned filmmaker Lucrecia Martel ("Zama"). And there are even two women in the competition this time: Saudi Arabian director Haifaa Al Mansour with "The Perfect Candidate" and Australian director debutante Shannon Murphy with "Babyteeth".

More, but not enough. Only last year festival director Alberto Barbera, 69, reluctantly accepted the petition "50/50 by 2020", which seeks to achieve gender parity in major film festivals. Venice was after Locarno, Berlin and Cannes not only the last of the A festivals, the petition committed, it lags now, a year later, still lagging behind.

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Even the French Cannes festival macho had four films by women in its competition this year, the most important North American festival in Toronto, which follows Venice on September 5, this time even making up 36 percent of the entire program Working Women. Films by acclaimed filmmakers such as Marjane Satrapi, Malgorzata Szumowska and Marielle Heller are on the run in Toronto. The excuse that there might not have been enough suitable films for the competition for the Golden Lion of Venice does not matter. In the "Orizzonti" section, on the other hand, directors are more frequently represented than before, including German director Katrin Gebbe ("Tore tanzt") presenting her new film "Pelikanblut".

It still remains difficult with the women and the odds at the Lido di Venezia. It almost seems as if Barbera, who starts his last year as Mostra's leader in 2020, wants to be particularly unruly again. So it seems like a bitter point that this year as many women in the main program of the festival will be represented as directors who are accused of rape. Initially, Roman Polanski's invitation to the competition caused a sensation. The French-Polish Oscar winner ("The Pianist") is still the target of prosecution in the United States and therefore can not travel to Venice for an extradition agreement with Italy to personally introduce his new film "J'accuse".

Criticism also provoked the invitation of the African-American filmmaker Nate Parker ("The Birth of a Nation"), who was accused of raping a fellow student as a young man in college. Parker was acquitted, but is considered in Hollywood as Persona non grata. Venice gives him a second chance: At the Lido Parker shows out of competition his self-justice drama "American Skin". Spike Lee will present the film, after the gala premiere, there will also be a question and answer session. Nevertheless, particularly US media were furious about this programming, in the industry journal "Hollywood Reporter" appeared on the weekend a venial preliminary billing with the festival: "How Venice Became the F-You Film Festival".

Festival director Barbera: "In Europe, we see it differently"

Barbera is calm against such aggressions. He realized that especially in the US, the view of art has become very rigid, he said in an interview with "Blickpunkt: Film": "There is no distinction between the man who makes the art, and the art itself In Europe we see things a little differently. " He puts the ostracized Polanski close to old masters: "Shall we burn all the Caravaggios because we know that the man was a murderer who escaped his punishment?"

Plenty of discussion will be provided on Wednesday when the festival opens with "La Verité", the first French-language film by Japanese author Hirokazu Koreeda, who won the Palme d'Or of Cannes last year with his patchwork family drama "Shoplifters" - and now Venice want to conquer. The main roles are played by Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche and Ethan Hawke.

For the first time since 2012, the festival is not started with a US production, which left critics already unken, Venice gradually lose its built up in recent years status as the Oscar ramp of the Hollywood studios. In fact, Venice's run is impressive: from "Gravity" and "Birdman" to "La La Land", "The Shape Of Water" and "Roma" to "A Star Is Born", nearly all of the recent Academy Award nominees of recent times ran first at the Lido.

Therefore, Barbera especially hurts that one of the guaranteed highlights of the season did not finish in time: Martin Scorsese's Netflix-financed gangster epic "The Irishman" had to move to New York. For the first time, Todd Phillips' "Joker" will feature a quasi-superhero movie in the competition: Joaquin Phoenix plays Batman's crazy opponent in the archives. And with Noah Baumbach's "A Marriage Story" (with Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver), also a Netflix production, Venice has a sure hit in the portfolio for the upcoming awards season. Controversial, interesting and, at best, exciting, the 76th Venice Film Festival is therefore always.

Here are ten of the expected movie highlights of the festival:

• "Ad Astra" by James Gray: A father-son epic in space with Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones promises Hollywood glamor and Starkino.
• "Joker" by Todd Phillips: DC's latest attempt to score in the superhero genre. The "hangover" director does not promise anything profound, but Joaquin Phoenix could be spectacular as a mad Batman villain.
• "Marriage Story" by Noah Baumbach: Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver as divorced mid-thirties in a "Kramer vs. Kramer" update of one of the best US indie filmmakers currently. The Oscars are already waving.
• "J'accuse": Roman Polanski's new film is about the Dreyfus Affair, which shook France's justice and society at the end of the 19th century. With Jean Dujardin and Emmanuelle Seigner.
• "American Skin": Director, Writer and Lead Actor Nate Parker remains true to the motives of his slave drama "The Birth of a Nation" - and portrays the ex-marines' self-justice campaign against racist US justice and police brutality. Controversy guaranteed. (Out of competition)
• "Seberg" by Andrew Benedict: Kristen Stewart embodies Jean Seberg ("Out of Breath") in a movie about the eventful life of the American actress, who may be more political thriller than biopic. (Out of competition)
• "Ema" by Pablo Larrain: After his trip to the US history with "Jackie", the Chilean director now turned back to Spanish and shows an adoption drama with horror potential.
• "The Laundromat" by Steven Soderbergh: Meryl Streep in a Soderbergh film about the investigative research of the "Panama Papers" - that promises huge political cinema.
• "The Perfect Candidate" by Haifaa Al-Mansour: A young doctor decides to run for a city councilor - the first woman in her Saudi Arabian hometown. Turbulence is inevitable.
• "La Verité": With his patchwork family drama "Shoplifters" he won Cannes, now the Japanese author filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda applies for the Golden Lion of Venice - with his first French-language film.