A Venice Film Festival 2023 with fewer stars and more controversy

Deprived of Hollywood stars due to the actors' strike, the 80th Venice Film Festival, which opens on Wednesday August 30, risks being exposed to criticism after selecting controversial filmmakers, targeted by accusations of sexual assault, such as Roman Polanski and Woody Allen.

The dean of film festivals, which serves as a launching pad for Hollywood before the awards season, will be the first major event in the 7th art to bear the brunt of the historic strike that is paralyzing American cinema.

For two months, the actors have joined the screenwriters in their social movement, asking for better remuneration and supervision of the use of artificial intelligence. Their powerful union, the SAG-AFTRA, prohibits all its members, even the most illustrious, from filming during the strike but also from participating in the promotion of films. Except surprise, farewell to the red carpet for the stars of selected American productions, such as Jessica Chastain, Bradley Cooper or Michael Fassbender.

The Mostra also had to give up on its opening film, Challengers by Luca Guadagnino, with Zendaya, Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist, replaced by a much less glamorous Italian production. Ferrari, of Michael Mann, 80 years old, will be one of the events of the competition. This biopic of the founder of the car brand, Enzo Ferrari, by the author of Heat or Collateral, benefits from a derogation granted by the union, which could allow its actors, Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz, to participate in the demonstration Italian.

Also in the running for the Golden Lion, won last year by documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras (All the beauty and bloodshed), filmmakers David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club) or Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, Virgin suicides ). The out-of-competition screening of William Friedkin's latest film will inevitably be an emotional moment, a month after the death of the cult director of The Exorcist. However, this selection is distinguished above all by the return to the screen of filmmakers implicated in cases of sexual assault, which they contest.

Among them, Roman Polanski, 90, lives in Europe safe from American justice, which he has been fleeing for more than 40 years after a conviction for rape. Persona non grata in Hollywood, this great name in the 7th art (Le Pianiste, Rosemary's Baby) has seen his situation change in France since the controversy surrounding the César he obtained for the production of J'accuse.

A large part of the profession considers him a symbol of a certain impunity with regard to sexual violence. Today, he is very discreet. The Mostra brings it back to light, thanks to the out-of-competition selection of The Palace, with in particular Fanny Ardant and Mickey Rourke, shot in Gstaad (Switzerland). Polanski, however, has no plans to come to Venice, said his press officer and the festival.

Woody Allen, 87, has seen almost the entire industry turn its back on him after allegations of sexual assault of his adopted daughter, which he denies and for which no investigation has been successful. He will present his 50th film, Coup de chance, shot in Paris in French and featuring Lou de Laâge, Valérie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud and Niels Schneider.

The Mostra, whose jury is chaired by director Damien Chazelle (La La Land), will also see the return to competition of Luc Besson, with Dogman. The director of Leon and the Fifth Element, with a roller coaster career, saw his legal horizon emerge at the end of June, the Court of Cassation definitively dismissing the rape charges brought against him by actress Sand Van Roy.

While the issues of the fight against discrimination and sexual violence seem to have progressed in recent years in the film industry, in the wake of the movement