Out of the 11 titles in competition representing 20 nationalities and including seven female directors, 10 of these films will be world premieres and seven of them will be first works.
Long time independent sidebar to the Venice International Film Festival, Venice Days will run from August 31 to September 10.
Spanning a great number of genres, the competition includes thrillers, ‘Hounds of Love’ from Ben Young, melodramas, ‘Indivisible’ by Edoardo De Angelis and ‘Pamilya Ordinaryo’ by Eduardo Roy, Jr.; a movie about immigration, ‘The Road to Mandalay’ helmed by Midi Z; a bio pic, ‘Sami Blood’ by Amanda Kernell; a western, ‘Guilty Men’ by Ivan D. Gaona; and grotesque with ‘Quit Staring At My Plate’ directed by Hana Jusic. There will also be coming-of age films ‘Heartstone’ by Guomundur Arnar Guomundsson and ‘Polina’ from Valerie Muller and Angelin Preljocaj.
Expected to be one of the more visceral films to come out this year, Venice Days will launch the Syrian war video diary ‘The War Show’, directed by Andreas Dalsgaard and Obadiah Zytoon. The film follows Zytoon crossing the border from Turkey into the war zone at the beginning of the Syrian civil war.
Venice Days continues to place emphasis on female directors with its Miu Miu Women’s Tales programming. This year it will features shorts from Naomi Kawase, ‘Seed’, and Crystal Moselle, ‘That One Day’.
More screenings can be found in the special event section of the sidebar. These screenings include ‘Always Shine’ from U.S. director and actress Sophia Takal; ‘Coffe’ by Cristiano Bortone; ‘Il Profumo Del Tempo Delle Favole’ from Mauro Caputo; ‘Rocco’ by Thierry Demaiziere and Alban Teurlai; ‘Vangelo’ from Pippo Delbono; and ‘You Never Had It — An Evening With Bukowski’ by Matteo Borgardt, a film created from a forgotten 1981 interview between Charles Bukowski and Italian journalist Silvia Bizio.