Venice Festival roars past its midpoint

Venice has never been shy about spectacle, and the 83rd edition of the world's oldest film festival is delivering it in full. Running on the Lido from 2 to 12 September, the festival has drawn Hollywood royalty, rock stars and awards-season hopefuls to the Adriatic, even as the major American studios stay conspicuously away.

The glamour peaked this weekend. Robert Pattinson swept in to premiere Primetime, Lance Oppenheim's unnerving drama in which he plays To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen — a role already generating loud awards buzz. Alongside him, Oasis brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher walked the carpet for Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger, a documentary charting their turbulent reunion and their first joint interview in 25 years. Both arrivals followed a lifetime achievement Golden Lion for George Clooney, shared this year with Ellen Burstyn, and a rapturous reception for John Malkovich in Martin McDonagh's Wild Horse Nine.

The competition, chaired by jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal, opened with Danny Boyle's Ink, a portrait of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid revolution, and features new work from Werner Herzog, Paul Schrader, Luca Guadagnino and Wim Wenders. Artistic director Alberto Barbera has been blunt about the thinning studio presence, pointing to a "serious identity crisis" in an American industry producing fewer, costlier films. Politics has intruded too, with a Venice4Palestine open letter — signed by Roger Waters, Annie Ernaux and Céline Sciamma, among others — urging concrete action over the war in Gaza.

Amid the flashbulbs, one of the festival's quietest entries carries the most weight for South Asian cinema. Rubaiyat Hossain's The Difficult Bride made its world premiere today in the Orizzonti Competition, the first feature-length Bangladeshi production ever selected for the section. Set around a traditional Dhaka beauty parlour, the 88-minute film follows a bride-to-be pushed through a punishing series of pre-wedding makeovers, her body becoming a site of quiet resistance against family expectation.

The production is notable for its predominantly female-led crew, with Portuguese cinematographer Leonor Teles behind the camera, and it has drawn support from Eurimages, France's CNC and Italy's Fondazione Prada Film Fund. Its first screening began at 7pm local time at the Sala Casino, with seven more to follow before the festival closes on 12 September.

As Venice enters its second week, the Golden Lion remains wide open — and, for once, so does the conversation about what a great festival film should be.