2023 Venice: Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” is Game, Set, Match as Festival Opener

Tipped to be an out of competition selection for MGM/Amazon Studios once they moved back their August release date, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers will open the 2023 edition of the Venice Film Festival – it will world premiere out of competition on August 30th. Guadagnino just completed filming on Queer with Jason Schwartzman, Daniel Craig and Lesley Manville.

Challengers follows three players (Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist) who knew each other when they were teenagers as they compete in a tennis tournament to be the world-famous grand slam winner, and reignite old rivalries on and off the court.