Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow returned to the Venice Film Festival with A House of Dynamite, her first feature in eight years. The Netflix-backed political thriller is already fueling Oscar buzz as it competes for the Golden Lion.
The first woman to win the Academy Award for best director, Kathryn Bigelow, is back at the Venice Film Festival Tuesday with a new White House thriller that Netflix hopes will find Oscar glory.
The highly anticipated A House of Dynamite from the American director is one of 21 films competing for the top Golden Lion prize for best film on Saturday at the world's oldest film festival.
The American director, who won the directing prize at the Oscars in 2010 for The Hurt Locker, focuses once again on geopolitics in her latest film, which depicts a missile threat to the White House and stars Idris Elba.
It has been eight years since Bigelow's last feature, Detroit about the 1967 riot in the US city, making the premiere of A House of Dynamite Tuesday evening one of the highlights of the festival.
Netflix, which produced the film, is banking on it as an Oscar contender.
It is one of three films from the streaming platform at Venice this year, along with Noah Baumbach's comedy Jay Kelly, starring George Clooney as a Hollywood star with an identity crisis, and the big-budget Frankenstein by Guillermo del Toro starring Oscar Isaac.
Van Sant returns with hostage drama
Also premiering Tuesday is Dead Man's Wire from Gus Van Sant — the director of Good Will Hunting and Drugstore Cowboy — who similarly has been out of the spotlight in recent years.
The American director's first movie since 2018 centers on a real-life hostage drama at a loan agency, with Bill Skarsgård and Al Pacino.
Van Sant is also due to receive a Passion for Film award from the festival and Campari spirits, an award that "honors those who turn passion into a driving creative force."
Monday's festival saw the premiere of The Smashing Machine starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, a film about real-life mixed martial-arts fighter Mark Kerr, a pioneer in the sport who competed in the 1990s and 2000s.
The Hollywood Reporter called the film from director Benny Safdie "a compellingly gritty and offbeat biopic."
Also receiving mostly positive reviews from critics was The Testament of Ann Lee from Mona Fastvold about the founder of the radical Shakers religious sect in the 1700s.
Packed with music, singing and dance, the feature was co-written by Fastvold and partner Brady Corbet, who used Venice last year to launch The Brutalist that went on to win three Oscars, including a best actor award for Adrien Brody.
By Adam PLOWRIGHT and Alexandria SAGE / AFP
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