{"id":822331,"date":"2026-07-24T04:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T04:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/822331\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T04:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T04:32:09","slug":"murdoch-and-musk-in-the-crosshairs-at-venice-film-festival-venice-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/822331\/","title":{"rendered":"Murdoch and Musk in the crosshairs at Venice film festival | Venice film festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Venice film festival<\/a> promises to take a swing at media moguls of the print and digital era this year, with Trainspotting director Danny Boyle\u2019s new film about Rupert Murdoch\u2019s acquisition of the Sun and a new documentary about Elon Musk included in the lineup of the films for the festival\u2019s 83rd edition.<\/p>\n

In Boyle\u2019s Ink, which will open the festival on the Lido on 2 September, Australian actor Guy Pearce plays compatriot newspaper tycoon Murdoch, whose purchase of the Sun in 1969 sensationalised the media landscape and transformed public life in Britain. The script is written by Olivier award-winning playwright and screenwriter James Graham (Dear England, Brexit: The Uncivil War).<\/p>\n

Oscar-winning veteran film-maker Alex Gibney<\/a> profiles the wealthiest person in the world, rightwing agitator and owner of social network X in his four-hour documentary Musk, which will be screened out of competition in Venice.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Venice has sought to profile itself as the glitziest and starriest of the big three European film festivals when compared with artistically challenging Cannes and politically charged Berlin.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s lineup, presented by long-running artistic director Alberto Barbera this week, will still draw major stars to Venice\u2019s waterways.<\/p>\n

Sam Rockwell (left) and John Malkovich in Wild Horse Nine. Photograph: Diego Araya Corval\u00e1n\/Searchlight Pictures\/AP<\/p>\n

British-Irish director Martin McDonagh will showcase his new film Wild Horse Nine, in which John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell are two unlikely CIA agents in action in Chile on the eve of the coup led by Augusto Pinochet. Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits and Parker Posey also star in the awaited return of the director of In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin.<\/p>\n

Robert Pattinson will grace the Lido as the lead in A24\u2019s Primetime, a psychological thriller inspired by the US reality TV show To Catch a Predator, directed by Lance Oppenheim.<\/p>\n

Real-life spouses Pen\u00e9lope Cruz and Javier Bardem star in French playwright-director Florian Zeller\u2019s Bunker, in which a publisher-architect couple move to London and are invited by a millionaire to design a building that could withstand a nuclear bomb.<\/p>\n

Real-life sisters Kate and Rooney Mara star in Bucking Fastard, the first dramatic feature film in seven years by German cult director Werner Herzog. The film was originally announced as a biopic of Freda and Greta Chaplin, twins from York who spoke and moved in unison and gained notoriety after a brush with the law. It seems to have since veered off into a direction more familiar from the maker of Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, centred around a mission to dig a tunnel through a mountain range \u201cin search of an imaginary land\u201d.<\/p>\n

Barbera said that Liam and Noel Gallagher had confirmed their attendance at the festival, for the premiere of Oasis reunion documentary Don\u2019t Look Back in Anger, while Russell Crowe is expected to attend a screening of What Love Builds, a feature-length documentary about his band Indoor Garden Party.<\/p>\n

But there is some more serious fare on the Lido this year. Russian-born film-maker Ilya Khrzhanovsky will show the latest film to emerge out of his Dar project<\/a>, likened to a Stalinist Truman Show and inspired by a Soviet research institute that contributed to the creation of the first atomic bomb.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa will bring his documentary Imperium, about a film that was commissioned by the Italian Communist party to glorify the triumph of the Soviet Union but ended up revealing its contradictions.<\/p>\n

Laura Poitras\u2019 latest documentary They\u2019re Here, made with Rachel Mueller, dives into ICE\u2019s intervention in Minneapolis and the killing of Ren\u00e9e Good, with some previously undisclosed footage.<\/p>\n

Tragicomedies such as Caro Diario and The Son\u2019s Room have made Nanni Moretti<\/a> one of Italy\u2019s most revered film-makers, but for the last two decades he has preferred to show his new works at Cannes rather than Venice. Showing in competition this year, Succeder\u00e0 Questa Notte (It Will Happen Tonight) will be Moretti\u2019s first film in Venice since 1989.<\/p>\n

After Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania made a mark on last year\u2019s festival with The Voice of Hind Rajab, there is a dramatic drop in female directors in this year\u2019s competition. After six female directors competed for the Golden Lion in 2025, Danish-Egyptian director May El-Toukhy\u2019s drama Woman Unknown is the only female-directed film among the 20 titles in the main competition.<\/p>\n

Venice 2026 official selection: the full list<\/p>\n

Ink Danny Boyle<\/p>\n

Company Casey Affleck<\/p>\n

A Bit of Light Ali Asgari<\/p>\n

Ritorno a Buenos Aires Marco Bechis<\/p>\n

Un Bon Petit Soldat St\u00e9phane Briz\u00e9<\/p>\n

Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti Dentro Edoardo de Angelis<\/p>\n

Woman Unknown May el-Toukhy<\/p>\n

Bucking Fastard Werner Herzog<\/p>\n

A Place to Heal C\u00e9dric Kahn<\/p>\n

Dau Ilya Khrzhanovsky<\/p>\n

Look Back Hirokazu Kore-eda<\/p>\n

Possible Love Lee Chang-dong<\/p>\n

Wild Horse Nine Martin McDonagh<\/p>\n

It Will Happen Tonight Nanni Moretti<\/p>\n

Primetime Lance Oppenheim<\/p>\n

The Echo Chamber Andrea Pallaoro<\/p>\n

Un Peu Avant Minuit Nicolas Pariser<\/p>\n

L\u2019Estranea Paolo Strippoli<\/p>\n

Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? Shinya Tsukamoto<\/p>\n

Bunker Florian Zeller<\/p>\n

Venice Spotlight<\/p>\n

Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing Erik Shirai (opening film)<\/p>\n

Conversation With the Sea Muayad Alayan<\/p>\n

Hombre Al Agua Gael Garc\u00eda Bernal<\/p>\n

Serpenti Roberto de Paolis Maino<\/p>\n

Furies Rami Kodeih<\/p>\n

Guria Levan Koguashvili<\/p>\n

Ground Floor G\u00e1bor Reisz<\/p>\n

I Matter Alina Serban<\/p>\n

Orizzonti competition<\/p>\n

La Ragazza con la Leica Alina Marazzi (opening film)<\/p>\n

The Burning Giants Phuttiphong Aroonpheng<\/p>\n

What Belongs to Others Grzegorz D\u0119bowski<\/p>\n

Una Storia Anna Foglietta<\/p>\n

La Citt\u00e0 dei Vivi Edoardo Gabbriellini<\/p>\n

Falling House Mohsen Gharaei<\/p>\n

Too Much Sugar Robert Greene<\/p>\n

The Difficult Bride Rubaiyat Hossain<\/p>\n

La Maison du Vent Auguste Bernard, Kouemo Yanghu<\/p>\n

I Figli Della Scimmia Tommaso Landucci<\/p>\n

A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra Jacqueline Lentzou<\/p>\n

Oasis Jannis Lenz<\/p>\n

Until the Day Ends Jelena Maksimovi\u0107<\/p>\n

La Moula J\u00e9r\u00f4me Pierrat<\/p>\n

Lovers in the Blue Night Anuparna Roy<\/p>\n

Un D\u00e9tour par Diane Ann Sirot, Rapha\u00ebl Balboni<\/p>\n

The Color of the Sun Xavier Tera<\/p>\n

Venice Open \u2013 Films on film<\/p>\n

Juso Per Ferie Karen di Porto<\/p>\n

Nino \u2013 Un Film su Nino Walter Fasano<\/p>\n

The Pervert\u2019s Guide to Utopias Sophie Fiennes<\/p>\n

Joie de Vivre Luca Guadagnino<\/p>\n

Twist and Shoot Mister Suzuki Yves Montmayeur<\/p>\n

Intermission Yonfan<\/p>\n

Venice Open \u2013 Nonfiction<\/p>\n

Be Brave Francesco Carrozzini<\/p>\n

What Love Builds Russell Crowe<\/p>\n

Burgundy Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw<\/p>\n

Musk Alex Gibney<\/p>\n

The Road to Jericho Amos Gitai<\/p>\n

Citizen Osama Ahmed Hassouna<\/p>\n

Union Town Barbara Kopple<\/p>\n

Holy Wood Dust Victor Kossakovsky<\/p>\n

Letters from the Silenced Country Andrei Kutsila<\/p>\n

Biograf\u00eda de Jorge Luis Borges Mariano Llin\u00e1s<\/p>\n

My Undesirable Friends Part II \u2013 Exile Julia Loktev<\/p>\n

Boatbuilders Luke Lorentzen<\/p>\n

Imperium Sergei Loznitsa<\/p>\n

Shumei \u2013 The Living Legacy of Kabuki Takashi Miike<\/p>\n

Queer Edward II Theo Rollason<\/p>\n

Oasis: Don\u2019t Look Back in Anger Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace<\/p>\n

Dust Tsai Ming-liang<\/p>\n

Everest: The Other Side dirs. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin<\/p>\n

From Inside Out \u2013 The Architecture of Peter Zumthor Wim Wenders<\/p>\n

Venice Open \u2013 Fiction<\/p>\n

Dio Ride Giovanni Veronesi (closing film)<\/p>\n

Nessun Dolore Gianni Amelio<\/p>\n

Let Us Through Dear Ancestors Lav Diaz<\/p>\n

Father Joe Barth\u00e9l\u00e9my Grossmann<\/p>\n

Scherzetto Mario Martone<\/p>\n

Place to Be Korn\u00e9l Mundrucz\u00f3<\/p>\n

No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman Halkawt Mustafa<\/p>\n

Arrested Memory Sabu<\/p>\n

The Basics of Philosophy Paul Schrader<\/p>\n

Un Bon Avocat Tristan S\u00e9gu\u00e9la<\/p>\n

Jupiter Alexandre Smia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Venice film festival promises to take a swing at media moguls of the print and digital era…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":["post-822331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}