Cassavetes’ Kiss of the Damned Closes Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week

Xan Cassavetes (Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession) will be premiering her feature film debut on the Lido this year in Venice’s answer to Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight section. Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week has unveiled it’s 9-film line-up (seven competish) and Kiss of the Damned (starring Josephine de la Baume and Roxane Mesquida) will close out the section, while Water – seven short segments helmed by Israeli and Palestinian directors (Nir Sa’ar, Maya Sarfaty, Mohammad Fuad, Yona Rozenkier, Mohammad Bakri, Ahmad Bargouthi, Pini Tavger and Tal Haring will open the the section. We expect some of these titles to trickle on towards TIFF – so we’ll be keeping a close eye on this pack. Here are the seven titles in competition.

The fest runs Aug. 29-Sept. 8

• ÄTA SOVA DÖ / EAT SLEEP DIE by Gabriela Pichler (Sweden)
• LA CITTÀ IDEALE / THE IDEAL CITY by Luigi Lo Cascio (Italy)
• KÜF / MOLD by Ali Aydın (Turkey-Germany)
• O LUNA IN THAILANDIA / A MONTH IN THAILAND by Paul Negoescu (Romania)
• NO QUIERO DORMIR SOLA / SHE DOESN’T WANT TO SLEEP ALONE by Natalia Beristain (Mexico)
• WELCOME HOME by Tom Heene (Belgium)
• XIAO HE / LOTUS by Liu Shu (People’s Republic of China)