- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Struggling Roma replace sacked icon De Rossi with Ivan Juric
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- McIlroy outlines threats to golf peace deal
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- Three dead, 100 wounded in new wave of Lebanon device explosions
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
- Allied war heroes buried in Netherlands... 80 years on
- Marsh coy over Australia's choice to open alongside Head
- New London sculpture pays tribute to trans community
- Lebanon doctors tell of horror after pager blasts
- McIlroy eyes Wentworth glory after Irish Open collapse
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
GSK | -0.31% | 42.43 | $ | |
RIO | -0.02% | 62.91 | $ | |
BTI | -0.34% | 37.88 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.37% | 6.55 | $ | |
NGG | -0.46% | 70.05 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.02% | 25.055 | $ | |
SCS | 0.71% | 14.11 | $ | |
BCC | 1.33% | 137.06 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.98 | $ | |
AZN | 0.06% | 78.58 | $ | |
RELX | -0.82% | 47.37 | $ | |
VOD | 0.49% | 10.23 | $ | |
JRI | 0.45% | 13.44 | $ | |
BP | -0.37% | 32.43 | $ | |
BCE | 3.09% | 35.61 | $ |
Venice film fest launches with Netflix's Adam Driver flick 'White Noise'
The Venice Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday with Adam Driver starring in opening film "White Noise" -- one of several Netflix entries competing for the top prize Golden Lion as the streaming giant seeks to burnish its arthouse credentials.
"White Noise" stars Driver as a Hitler studies professor in a town experiencing an "Airborne Toxic Event", reuniting him with director Noah Baumbach following their lauded "Marriage Story".
Netflix will also premiere the highly anticipated "Blonde", a dark retelling of Marilyn Monroe's tragic life, in the second week of the 10-day festival.
Its Australian director Andrew Dominik has, with typical modesty, declared it "a masterpiece" and it could propel Cuban actress Ana de Armas from rising star to fully fledged A-lister.
The streaming platform is also behind "Bardo", the latest from Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who launched his previous films "Birdman" and "The Revenant" in Venice on their way to Oscar glory.
- Award-winning directors -
The world's longest-running film festival, now in its 79th edition, is held each year on the beach-lined Lido island.
It is well-timed to launch Academy Award campaigns, with a particularly strong track record for directors in recent years.
Eight of the last 10 Best Director Oscars have gone to films that premiered at Venice, including the most recent winner Jane Campion for "Power of the Dog" -- another Netflix production, even if the streaming platform is still waiting for its first Best Picture statuette at the annual Hollywood awards.
Also expected to grace the Lido on Wednesday is French actress Catherine Deneuve who is picking up a lifetime achievement award.
Among the other highly anticipated entries in the coming days is "Bones and All", featuring man-of-the-moment Timothee Chalamet as a love-sick cannibal on a road trip across America, reuniting him with "Call Me By Your Name" director Luca Guadagnino.
There is early buzz, too, for "The Whale" starring Brendan Fraser -- who has been largely absent from the screen since his heyday in films like "The Mummy" two decades ago -- as a morbidly obese man trying to reconnect with his daughter.
Its director, Darren Aronofsky, won the Golden Lion in 2008 for "The Wrestler" and launched his Oscar-winning "Black Swan" in Venice.
Hollywood and Western Europe dominate the selection of 23 films competing for the hearts of a jury led by US actress Julianne Moore.
One notable exception is Iran's award-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi, whose "No Bears" is premiering barely a month after he was imprisoned in Tehran amid a crackdown on dissident directors.
- Styles fever -
Also bound to stir political controversy is a new documentary from Laura Poitras, who follows her films about whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Julian Assange with "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed" about the family pharma group behind the US opioid epidemic.
But the movie most likely to get tongues wagging is "Don't Worry Darling", playing out of competition on Monday, which features music megastar Harry Styles in his first leading role.
The tale of sinister goings-on in a seemingly idyllic 1950s community has so far been overshadowed by buzz about its sex scenes and supposed clashes between co-star Florence Pugh and director Olivia Wilde (also Styles' girlfriend).
Wilde has dismissed them as "invented click-bait".
M.Ouellet--BTB