Venice Film Festival: Controversial The Master leads line-up

The world’s oldest film festival is upon us. The 69th edition of the Venice Film Festival kicks off this week and promises any number of exciting festival surprises, and the unveiling of some of this year’s awards season’s frontrunners.

Alberto Barbera returns as the festival’s director, after his 1998-2002 run, with 18 competition titles (five shy of last year) and 60 world premieres. Mira Nair’s adaptation of bestselling novel 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' is the festival’s opening night, telling the story of a Pakistani Princeton grad whose Wall Street ambitions are dashed by the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

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There’s more politicized cinema due from Robert Redford, who comes to Venice with his thriller 'The Company You Keep' and 'Carlos' director Olivier Assayas, who brings 'Something in the Air', a 70s-set story about a high-school student caught up in revolutionary violence.

Terrence Malick comes to Venice to premiere his highly anticipated new film 'To The Wonder'. Malick made just four films between 1973-2005, so this one, coming a little over a year after 'Tree of Life' premiered at Cannes, seems especially quick. And the noted auteur even has another film deep in post-production. 'To The Wonder' is a romantic drama about a man reconnecting to a hometown girl after the breakdown of his marriage to a European woman. It stars Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Javier Bardem.

Equally as anticipated, Paul Thomas Anderson returns to screens after 'There Will Be Blood' with 'The Master', his fictionalized account of a religion that is IN NO WAY BASED ON SCIENTOLOGY. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a Hubbard-esque figure at the film’s heart, with Joaquin Phoenix the drifter who steps up as his right-hand man. We’re all excited to see the return of Anderson, but don’t forget that this is Phoenix’s first time back into proper acting since his crazy year, “documented” by Casey Affleck in the film 'I’m Still Here'.

Controversy circles that film, though, as it’s already been the subject of a number of sneak preview screenings across the US. Venice, which insists on world premieres, can’t be happy with producers’ decision to screen the film early, but they argue these work-in-progress screenings (which happened without credits attached) don’t count as official premieres. Regardless, this one is tipped for Oscar glory, so it’s no wonder Venice hasn’t pulled the plug.

Harmony Korine is always good for a headline or two. The 'Trash Humpers' director and 'Kids' writer comes to Venice with 'Spring Breakers', starring James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson. It’s about four college girls jailed when they rob a restaurant, and bailed by a drugs and arms dealer who engages them to do his dirty work. If it’s anything like Korine’s usual output, expect it to be anything but politically correct.

Brian DePalma hasn’t graced screens with a new film since he won Venice’s Best Director award for 'Redacted' in 2007. So we’re happy to see him back this year with 'Passion', another Rachel McAdams-starrer, a thriller about a young businesswoman plotting revenge against her idea-stealing boss. Swedish 'Prometheus' star Noomi Rapace is also in the flick, which we’re hoping is a return to form for the director of such classics as 'Scarface' and 'Carrie'.

Other titles we’re excited to see include Ramin Bahrani’s 'At Any Price' starring Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron; Xavier Giannoli’s 'Superstar' with Cecile de France; Suzanne Bier’s rom-com 'Love is All You Need' with Pierce Brosnan; and 'Bad 25', a documentary exploring the quarter century since the release of Michael Jackson’s Bad album.

We’ll loop back around with all the news from the festival as it draws to a close. But before Venice wraps up, don’t forget that Toronto Film Festival, where the rest of Oscar season’s big guns will come out, will kick off. In the next few weeks we should have a much better idea of who the big players will be on Oscar night.