The Venice film festival promises to take a swing at media moguls of the print and digital era this year, with Trainspotting director Danny Boyle's new film about Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of the Sun and a new documentary about Elon Musk included in the lineup for the festival's 83rd edition. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
In Boyle's Ink, which will open the festival on the Lido on 2 September, Australian actor Guy Pearce plays compatriot newspaper tycoon Murdoch, whose purchase of the Sun in 1969 sensationalised the media landscape and transformed public life in Britain. The script is written by Olivier award-winning playwright and screenwriter James Graham.
Oscar-winning veteran film-maker Alex Gibney profiles the wealthiest person in the world, rightwing agitator and owner of social network X in his four-hour documentary Musk, which will be screened out of competition in Venice.
In recent years, Venice has sought to profile itself as the glitziest and starriest of the big three European film festivals. This year's lineup will still draw major stars to Venice's waterways.
British-Irish director Martin McDonagh will showcase his new film Wild Horse Nine, in which John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell are two unlikely CIA agents in action in Chile on the eve of the coup led by Augusto Pinochet. Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits and Parker Posey also star.
Robert Pattinson will grace the Lido as the lead in A24's Primetime, a psychological thriller inspired by the US reality TV show To Catch a Predator, directed by Lance Oppenheim.
Real-life spouses Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem star in French playwright-director Florian Zeller's Bunker, in which a publisher-architect couple move to London and are invited by a millionaire to design a building that could withstand a nuclear bomb.
Real-life sisters Kate and Rooney Mara star in Bucking Fastard, the first dramatic feature film in seven years by German cult director Werner Herzog. The film was originally announced as a biopic of Freda and Greta Chaplin, twins from York, but has since veered into a direction more familiar from the maker of Aguirre, the Wrath of God.
Barbera said that Liam and Noel Gallagher had confirmed their attendance at the festival for the premiere of Oasis reunion documentary Don't Look Back in Anger, while Russell Crowe is expected to attend a screening of What Love Builds, a feature-length documentary about his band Indoor Garden Party.
Russian-born film-maker Ilya Khrzhanovsky will show the latest film from his Dar project, likened to a Stalinist Truman Show and inspired by a Soviet research institute.
Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa will bring his documentary Imperium, about a film commissioned by the Italian Communist party to glorify the triumph of the Soviet Union but ended up revealing its contradictions.
Laura Poitras' latest documentary They're Here, made with Rachel Mueller, dives into ICE's intervention in Minneapolis and the killing of Renée Good.
Nanni Moretti's Succederà Questa Notte will be his first film in Venice since 1989, showing in competition.
After Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania made a mark on last year's festival with The Voice of Hind Rajab, there is a dramatic drop in female directors in this year's competition. After six female directors competed for the Golden Lion in 2025, Danish-Egyptian director May El-Toukhy's drama Woman Unknown is the only female-directed film among the 20 titles in the main competition.