Venice film festival picks starry films despite actors’ strike

Hollywood films vying for Golden Lion include Bradley Cooper’s Maestro and Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things, with non-competition films by Wes Anderson and Richard Linklater

The Venice film festival appears to have largely shrugged off issues caused by non-attendance of Hollywood actors due to the Sag-Aftra strike as it unveiled its lineup for its 2023 edition.

Venice has traditionally functioned partly as a platform for major American releases looking for strong positioning in the autumn awards season, and it has already seen its originally announced opening film Challengers, a tennis drama starring Zendaya, drop out after it was forced to delay its release date.

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Wes Anderson says Bill Murray misconduct allegations won’t affect their working relationship

Director, who has worked with Murray on nine of his 11 films, says it was Covid-19, not misconduct allegations, that stopped the actor appearing in his latest film Asteroid City

Wes Anderson has said that various allegations made against his frequent collaborator Bill Murray will not affect their working relationship, describing him as “part of my family”.

The 54-year-old director, known for using the same actors across his films, spoke before the release of his latest, Asteroid City, which is one of only two of his 11 released feature films that Murray has not appeared in.

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Where does the Oscar race stand after this year’s big festivals?

With a more normal awards season on the way, it’s time to sift through what’s been loved and hated and look forward to what performances could make an impact

As we all edge slowly closer to something vaguely sorta kinda resembling a loose idea of normality, so too does Hollywood, its relatively fixed annual schedule going from blurry to a bit less blurry. After an almost normal summer, the fall festivals followed and while they weren’t quite back up to snuff (some had a semi-virtual element, some big films were notably missing), there was a dramatic improvement from 2020 and, importantly, they were pulled off with very few infections.

Related: ‘We want people to freak out’: inside Hollywood’s Museum of Motion Pictures

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