From Murdoch to Musk: “Most Political Edition in History” Kicks Off at the Venice Film Festival
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, the Venice International Film Festival has traditionally served as a launching pad for the Academy Awards; whenever a film carried awards-season ambitions (such as La La Land, The Shape of Water, Poor Things, or The Brutalist), the Lido was its first destination. However, the 83rd edition of the festival has taken a markedly different approach. Politics, rather than award campaigns, has moved to center stage, with this year’s lineup placing a heavy focus on right-wing media moguls, the suppression of migrants, international conflicts in Israel, Iran, and Russia, as well as the fallouts of capitalism and the rise of authoritarian power. According to Artistic Director Alberto Barbera, this edition marks “the most political event in Venice’s history.”
The festival opened with the screening of Ink, directed by Danny Boyle—a drama detailing Rupert Murdoch’s 1969 takeover of The Daily Sun, whose blend of tabloid sensationalism and right-wing populism served as a blueprint for The New York Post and Fox News. The film stars Guy Pearce as Murdoch and Jack O’Connell as Sun editor Larry Lamb.
Further into the lineup, Alex Gibney’s four-hour documentary Musk presents an investigative portrait of the world’s richest man—a film that Elon Musk pre-emptively dismissed on X as a “biased hit piece.” Additionally, the short documentary They Are Here, directed by Laura Poitras and Rachel Lauren Mueller, examines the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis.
Works related to the Middle East also form a significant portion of this year’s programming. Ali Asgari’s A Bit of Light tells the story of an Iranian doctor whose life is dismantled by the government in Tehran. In Osama’s Citizen, Ahmad Hassouna focuses on the life of a photojournalist in Gaza, while Muayad Alayan’s Conversation with the Sea follows a Palestinian man navigating administrative complexities. The documentary The Jericho Road, directed by Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai, depicts the fate of the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar near Jerusalem. Furthermore, the controversial documentary NAZA, directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (creators of No Other Land), was added to the competition lineup at the last minute.
In other sections, Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile addresses Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on independent journalists. Belarusian filmmaker Andrei Kutsila presents Letters from a Silent Country, narrating state repression through the correspondence of five political prisoners. Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa participates with The Empire, while Ilya Khrzhanovsky explores Soviet-era life and totalitarianism through his controversial experimental project DAU.
In the realm of critique on capitalism, acclaimed South Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong presents Possible Love, following the family of a laid-off worker. Stéphane Brizé’s Good Little Soldier, starring Alba Rohrwacher and Vincent Lindon, depicts corporate management challenges. Additionally, Barbara Kopple completes her documentary trilogy on American labor movements with Union City.
Even Hollywood and mainstream entries carry strong political subtexts. Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy Wild Horse Nine, starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, focuses on CIA agents in Chile prior to the Pinochet coup. In Florian Zeller’s Bunker, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem play a couple driven apart after a billionaire commissions the construction of an underground nuclear shelter.
Founded under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, the Venice Film Festival’s current programming demonstrates that Barbera views this history not as an embarrassing precedent, but as a mandate for fostering serious discourse. Alexander Rodnyansky, producer of The Jericho Road, noted: “Venice is one of the few international cultural platforms capable of inviting filmmakers with vastly different political viewpoints to bring their works into conversation.”
Nonetheless, presenting such a volume of politically charged cinema has brought controversy. In the previous edition, the screening of The Voice of Hind Rajab prompted a 22-minute standing ovation alongside pro-Palestinian demonstrations. This year, the “Venice for Palestine” group released an open letter signed by figures like Roger Waters and Annie Ernaux, demanding concrete action in support of Palestine. On another front, the screening of DAU drew sharp criticism from Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture, though Barbera dismissed the pushback as a “campaign against an unseen film.”
Despite festival acclaim, commercial prospects for political cinema remain challenging. Films such as The Voice of Hind Rajab and The Apprentice (about Donald Trump) faced buyer hesitation regarding wide theatrical distribution in the U.S. Still, as Beatrice Fiorentino, artistic director of Venice Critics’ Week, puts it: “Everything is political. To ignore politics amid global crises would be an escape from history itself.”
