Angelina Jolie Vaults Into The Oscar Conversation After ‘Maria’ Debut In Venice

deadline.com:

Angelina Jolie has staked her claim to be part of the Best Actress Oscar conversation here at the Venice Film Festival following her well-received performance in Maria.

Pablo Larraín’s biopic follows the life story of the world’s greatest opera singer, Maria Callas, during her final days in 1970s Paris.

Jolie in a press conference today said she spent seven months preparing for the role: “Everybody here knows, I was terribly nervous,” she said of learning to sing opera. “I spent almost seven months training because when you work with Pablo you can’t do anything by half.

He demands, in the most wonderful way, that you really do the work and you really learn and train.” Critics have perhaps been more enthusiastic about Jolie’s performance than the film itself, which could prove challenging for the actress’s Academy prospects, but Netflix picked the film up this week and the strong notices mean in a relatively quiet year for the streamer so far, Jolie’s turn could be a live contender for them. RELATED: Venice Film Festival 2024: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews Deadline’s Stephanie Bunbury, in her review, said of the actress: “Jolie is an almost magical match for the real diva: achingly thin but still beautiful, loftily patrician, capriciously kind or selfish, tip-toeing dangerously close to madness.