Eighteen is the exact number of films selected last year, and will probably be the case for (the opener was not yet announced) the Orizzonti aka Horizons competition section at the 2023 edition of the Venice Film Festival. Among the titles we’ve been keeping tabs on we find Nehir Tuna’s debut feature Dormitory – which was part of the Sundance Film Festival labs (we sat down with him back in 2019). Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir‘s heavily anticipated City of Wind (formerly going by Ze) a major presence on the film fest circuit. From Brazil and on our Most Anticipated Films list (#130), we find Nara Normande and Tiao‘s Heartless. Also high up on our Most Anticipated list (#107) we find Mika Gustafson‘s Paradise Is Burning (formerly titled as Sisters) and from Tunisia, Mohamed Ben Attia‘s Behind the Mountains (formerly know as Floating in a Vacuum) is also among the mix. And it goes without saying, Tatami by Guy Nattiv and actress-turned director Zar Amir Ebrahimi could be a strong political film, while one pleasant surprise is Bill Ross and Turner Ross making their first foray into fiction with Gasoline Rainbow – coined as a road movie that will stay true to their docu films to date.
Here are all the Orizzonti selections and Orizzonti Extra titles (nine in all) with the likes of the TIFF-selected The Rescue by Daniela Goggi, and debut films from”royalty” in Jack Huston‘s Day of the Fight and Olmo Schnabel‘s Pet Shop Boys.
A Cielo Abierto – Mariana Arriaga, Santiago Arriaga El Paraiso – Enrico Maria Artale Behind the Mountains – Mohamed Ben Attia The Red Suitcase – Fidel Devkota Tatami – Guy Nattiv, Zar Amir Ebrahimi Paradise Is Burning – Mika Gustafson The Featherweight – Robert Kolodny Invelle – Simone Massi Hesitation Wound – Selman Nacar Heartless – Nara Normande, Tiao Una Sterminata Domenica – Alain Perroni City of Wind – Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir Explanation for Everything – Gabor Reisz Gasoline Rainbow – Bill Ross, Turner Ross En Attendant la Nuit – Céline Rouzet Housekeeping for Beginners – Goran Stolevski Shadow of Fire – Shinya Tsukamoto Dormitory – Nehir Tuna
HORIZONS EXTRA Bota Jone – Luana Bajrami Forever Forever – Anna Buryachkova The Rescue – Daniela Goggi In the Land of Saints and Sinners – Robert Lorenz Day of the Fight – Jack Huston Felicita – Micaela Ramazzotti Pet Shop Boys – Olmo Schnabel Stolen – Karan Tejpal L’Homme d’Argile – Anais Tellenne
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).
