By Jessica Herndon
There is no denying the Venice International Film Festival is a hot one! From the usually steamy temperature in the Italian “City of Canals” from late August to early September, to the lineup’s compelling premieres and special screenings, Venice continues to heat up the 2024 festival circuit.
At the 81st Venice International Film Festival, which starts tomorrow and runs through September 7, we’re thrilled to see that five films with deep ties to the Sundance Institute are in the lineup. From alums of the Screenwriters Lab and the Directors Lab, to the Producers Program, Catalyst program, Ignite program, and Documentary Film Program, we’re proud to be connected to filmmakers who will debut their work in Venice.
Be sure to look these films up in the program if you’re attending. To learn more about the initiatives mentioned in this list, click here.
Homegrown — Documentary Film Program
Logline: Homegrown is a verité portrait of a fractured America, offering an unprecedented look at right-wing activists as they search for purpose and power — with dire consequences.
Happyend — Directors and Screenwriters Labs, Catalyst
Logline: Two teenage best friends living in near-future Tokyo, where earthquakes are part of the fabric of life, must confront the end of their friendship as they navigate diverging paths towards adulthood.
Mistress Dispeller — Documentary Producers Lab
Logline: Desperate to save her marriage, a woman in China hires a professional to go undercover to break up her husband’s affair. With strikingly intimate access, Mistress Dispeller follows this unfolding family drama from all corners of a love triangle.
Apocalypse in the Tropics — Catalyst
Synopsis: When does a democracy end, and a theocracy begins? In Apocalypse in the Tropics, Petra Costa investigates the increasingly powerful grip that faith leaders hold over politics in Brazil. She gains extraordinary access to the country’s top political leaders, including President Lula and former President Bolsonaro, as well as to Brazil’s most famous televangelist: a larger-than-life pastor who plays the puppet master to the far-right leader. The film chronicles the profound role the evangelical movement has played in Brazil’s recent political turmoil, and it also grapples with the apocalyptic theology that drives the movement’s chief protagonists. As in her Academy-Award nominated The Edge of Democracy, Costa documents a time of profound confusion and despair with lucidity and a poetic eye. Weaving together past and present, she immerses us in the contradictory realities of a young democracy that is hanging on by a thread, and, in so doing, holds up a mirror to the rest of the world.
To Kill a Mongolian Horse — Ignite
Logline: Amid the wintry steppes, Saina, a Mongolian horseman turned cultural performer, tends his ranch during the day and performs horseback tricks for audiences at night. Unlike the majestic cavalryman he portrays in the show, Saina discovers that his real life as a herdsman is on the verge of disintegrating.
