Luca Guadagnino Set For Busy Venice Despite Pulling Of ‘Challengers’ As He Presents Short Animation ‘The Meatseller’ & Feature ‘Enea’; Talks Love Of Producing Young Talent
deadline.comLuca Guadagnino is putting a brave face on the sudden pulling last month of new movie Challengers from the prestigious opening slot of the Venice Film Festival, after the actors’ strike grounded its U.S.
cast led by Zendaya. The Venice regular, who won its Best Director award in 2022 for Bones And All having also premiered A Bigger Splash and Suspiria in Competition; I Am Love in Orizzonti and first feature The Protagonists in the now defunct New Territories sidebar, considers the festival his “home” and will still be out in force on the Lido.
The Oscar-nominated Call Me By Your Name director and producer is attending with two productions made under his Frenesy Film Company banner: short animated documentary The Meatseller and Italian actor Pietro Castellitto’s feature directorial debut Enea in Competition. “You know Venezia is my home and I will be there with the short and feature in competition… it’s great to be there with these,” Guadagnino told Deadline on the eve of the festival which opens today and runs to September 9.
He will also be presented with a Life Achievement Award by the Giornate degli Autori parallel section and the Italian Society of Authors (SAIE), which has been renamed this year after investigative journalist and GdA president Andreas Purgatori, who died suddenly over the summer. “He was a very kind man and very, very great journalist so I pleased and humbled by that,” he says of the honor.
Read more on deadline.com