The third Coffee with Venezia da Vivere covers Julia Roberts’ debut at the Lido with Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, Laura Poitras out of competition, and Park Chan-wook in competition
Julia Roberts debuts at the Lido today, Friday, August 29, on the third day of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival. The actress will arrive at the Lido for the morning photocall and press conference, before returning to the red carpet at 6:45 PM for the out-of-competition presentation in the Sala Grande of After the Hunt, the new work by Luca Guadagnino.
Upon her arrival at the airport a couple of days ago, she already drew attention wearing a cardigan featuring a black and white pattern of Guadagnino’s face, a tribute to the Italian director who cast her as the lead in the film alongside Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Chloë Sevigny.
Luca Guadagnino, a regular at the Venice Film Festival, won the Silver Lion for Best Director in 2022 for Bones and All. His new film, After the Hunt, is a psychological thriller about a university professor who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star student levels an accusation of misconduct against one of her colleagues, played by Andrew Garfield, risking the exposure of a dark secret from the past.
Today’s films in competition
There are two films in competition today: À pied d’œuvre (At Work) by Valerie Donzelli and Eojjeol suga eopda – No Other Choice by South Korean director Park Chan-wook.
The first film, starring Bastien Bouillon, André Marcon, and Virginie Ledoyen, tells the true story of a photographer who gives up everything to dedicate himself to writing and discovers poverty. “This film examines the value we place on a life driven by a silent, unspectacular, yet unstoppable passion: the need to create, no matter what happens,” says the director.
Park Chan-wook, winner of the Leoncino d’Oro in 2005 for Lady Vengeance and awarded Best Director at Cannes in 2022 for Decision to Leave, tells the story in No Other Choice of a paper manufacturer living a stable life until the day he is fired and begins a series of adventures to find a new job. The cast includes Lee Byung-hun and Park Hee-soon (both stars of the TV series Squid Game) and actress Son Ye-jin.
The Golden Lion documentarian who makes the United States tremble
In 2022, the Golden Lion was awarded to the documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed by American filmmaker Laura Poitras, who this year presents her latest work Cover Up out of competition in Venice, retracing the career of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his numerous journalistic investigations into the military.
The documentary is based on access to Hersh’s notes, as well as the use of archival documents and footage. What emerges is a portrait of a journalist tireless in exposing the systematic impunity within the U.S. armed forces and intelligence agencies.
Laura Poitras recounted that she first contacted Seymour Hersh in 2005, after returning “from a trip documenting the American war in Iraq,” but was unable to convince him. She went to visit him at his office in Connecticut, where she felt as if she were entering “a time machine with gravity-defying pads of notes stacked on every surface.” She continued to ask persistently until he gave in: after twenty years, Hersh agreed, and the documentary is now a reality.
Carmen Maura returns to Venice
For Carmen Maura, participating in the Venice Film Festival is nothing new. Many remember, above all, her presence in 1988 with the entire cast of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown by Pedro Almodóvar, a film that brought a breath of color, commotion, and novelty to the Lido.
For fans of the Spanish director, it will be possible to see her on screen again in the coming days in the restored version of Matador.
Today, in the Venice Spotlight section, she stars in the Moroccan film Calle Málaga by director Maryam Touzani, in which she plays seventy-nine-year-old Spaniard María Ángeles, who lives alone in Tangier and enjoys her daily routine. Her life is disrupted when her daughter arrives from Madrid to sell the apartment where she has always lived. Determined to stay, she will fight to reclaim her home and her possessions, while also unexpectedly rediscovering love and sensuality.
Calle Málaga stems from the director’s deep need to reconnect with her own memories, explore them, and bring them back to life. The film contains many autobiographical notes, such as the reference to her own Spanish grandmother who lived in Tangier. With this film, she aims to tell her own story and portray a different kind of aging, one still full of life despite the limitations often imposed by different societies.
Films of the Day in Other Sections
Two films will be presented in the Orizzonti section: Estrany riu (Strange River) by Jaume Claret Muxart, the story of a sixteen-year-old’s encounter with another boy during a family holiday on the Danube, and Dinți de lapte (Milk Teeth) by Romanian director Mihai Mincan, which tells, through the eyes of a young girl, the story of her sister’s disappearance in a small provincial village during the final years of the Ceaușescu dictatorship.
Out of Competition, two other films will be presented in addition to Poitras’: the Macedonian fairy tale The Tale of Silyan by Tamara Kotevska, which comes to life when an injured white stork is rescued by a savior in a landfill, transforming both their lives, and My Father and Qaddafi by Jihan K, a documentary reconstructing the story of Mansur Rashid Kikhia, a human rights lawyer, Libyan Foreign Minister, and Ambassador to the United Nations, and a potential opponent of Gaddafi, who mysteriously disappeared in 1993.
For Biennale College Cinema, the Cambodian film Chiet Chea Manusa (Becoming Human) by Polen Ly will be presented, the story of how a ghost guarding an old cinema facing demolition faces his own destiny as he encounters humans in a country undergoing profound social change.
Three films are presented in the Venice Classics section: Mark of the Renegade (1951) by Hugo Fregonese, Le quai des brumes (Port of Shadows) (1938) by Marcel Carné, and Sangre del Toro, a documentary by Yves Montmayeur that explores the world of Golden Lion and Academy Award winner Guillermo del Toro.
Venice Days presents Écrire la vie. Annie Ernaux racontée par des lycéennes et des lycéens by Claire Simon, a portrait of Nobel Prize winner for Literature Annie Ernaux seen through the eyes of high school students, and Arkoudotrypa (Bearcave) by Greek directors Stergios Dinopoulos and Krysianna B. Papadakis, which tells the story of friendship and love between two female friends.
International Critics’ Week presents the short film The Pørnøgraphɛr by HARIEL, an Italian collective for AI-driven cinema, and the film Agon by Giulio Bertelli, the story of three female athletes training for the Olympics in sports originally designed for war training.
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Article by Pietro Gallina (VeneziaCinema) with Lucia Pecoraro.
Photos by Rossana Viola from the second day of the Venice Film Festival, Thursday, August 28, 2025.
