Venice Critics' Week lineup: Adnani, AI doc and more
The Venice Critics’ Week lineup for the 83rd Venice Film Festival unveils seven world-premiere debut features, headlined by Shalini Adnani’s family drama Our Share of Sand and the AI-assisted Colombian hybrid The End of Times, all in the running for the Lion of the Future prize. The sidebar, dedicated to first works from around the world, will run as part of the fest set for Sept. 2-12, with the official selection due Thursday.
Key Takeaways
- Seven first-time directors will world-premiere features in Venice Critics’ Week competition.
- Shalini Adnani’s Our Share of Sand follows 12-year-old Maya returning to rural India to reconnect with her estranged father.
- Colombia contributes AI-assisted hybrid The End of Times and Sebastián Múnera’s Meteorite.
- Italian titles open and close the section out of competition: Giaffa the Great and Rider.
- All competition entries also vie for the festival’s $100,000 Lion of the Future prize.
What titles headline the Venice Critics’ Week lineup?
London-based Chilean-Indian director Shalini Adnani’s debut Our Share of Sand (India, United Kingdom, Greece) is among the standout entries. The story centers on Maya, a 12-year-old girl who returns to rural India to reconnect with her estranged father.
Two Colombian titles join the slate. Fiction-documentary hybrid The End of Times, co-directed by Bibiana Rojas Gómez and Juan David Cárdenas, uses artificial intelligence to explore colonialism and capitalism in Colombian history. Sebastián Múnera’s drama Meteorite concerns plans to build an amusement park on the grounds of Pablo Escobar’s former estate.
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Which other debut features are competing?
Paris-based Tommaso Usberti’s Before the War (Prima Della Guerra; France, Italy) follows Guido, raised in a Northern Italian racist milieu, who falls in love with Kosovar immigrant Sonia. Tunisia’s Kamel Laaridhi contributes dystopian drama The H@llow Man, set in 2059 Tunisia where a biochip regulates memory and suppresses emotion.
China’s Dong Jie brings Zoom In, Zoom Out, about a young video game designer seeking missing roommate Gao via a clue hidden in an online game. Brazil’s Victor Di Marco and Márcio Picoli close the competition slate with London, about a dilemma faced by a disabled young adult.
According to Variety’s report, all seven competition features are world premieres by first-time directors.
How do the out-of-competition films and awards fit in?
The section opens out of competition with Marco Santi’s existential noir Giaffa the Great (Il Grande Giaffa, Italy). It closes with Italian rap musical Rider, co-directed by Roan Johnson and producer Davide Pavanello (Dade). The film follows a young food delivery driver who delivers a huge sushi order to a luxurious villa on Milan’s outskirts and is invited to stay for the evening.
Venice Critics’ Week general delegate Beatrice Fiorentino said the selected works prove cinema “never stopped asserting its own cruciality,” calling them fierce, independent, daring and vibrant. Competition titles will also compete alongside official selection films for the Lion of the Future prize, worth $100,000.
The 83rd Venice Film Festival runs Sept. 2-12. Streaming and TV audiences tracking festival buzz can follow further lineup updates via BlasterPost’s Streaming & TV Alerts desk.