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The 5 Standing Ovations Everyone's Talking About at Venice Film Festival

Here's what's fueling the loudest reactions on the Lido this year.

Hiike IndependentSeptember 9, 20263 min read

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The 83rd Venice International Film Festival is coming to a close, and the standing ovations have been memorable this year. Here's a closer look at the five loudest audience reactions of the festival, and why each one matters heading into awards season.

Bunker - 16 minutes

Directed by Florian Zeller

The longest ovation of the festival belongs to Bunker, Florian Zeller's psychological thriller starring real-life couple Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem. Zeller is the filmmaker behind The Father, which won Anthony Hopkins his second Oscar, so expectations were already high. It's a full-circle moment for the couple, too: this is their first film together since Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and Venice is the same festival where they first broke through as a duo more than three decades ago. Cruz was reportedly in tears by the time the ovation wrapped, and the film heads to Toronto next as a Gala Presentation.

Wild Horse Nine - 13 minutes

Directed by Martin McDonagh

Martin McDonagh's follow-up to The Banshees of Inisherin pairs John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as two CIA operatives sent to Easter Island just before the 1973 Chilean coup. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Banshees premiered here before going on to multiple Oscar nominations, with Three Billboards winning for Rockwell and Frances McDormand. Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, and Parker Posey round out the cast.

Primetime - 8 minutes

Directed by Lance Oppenheim

Robert Pattinson continues his run of unexpected, transformative roles, this time playing Chris Hansen, the journalist behind To Catch a Predator. Directed by Lance Oppenheim and produced by A24, the film digs into the murky line between journalism, entertainment, and vigilante justice that defined Hansen's early-2000s sting operations. Pattinson is joined by Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, and Phoebe Bridgers in the film.

Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger - 8 minutes

Directed by Dylan Southern & Will Lovelace

Not every ovation at Venice is for a scripted film. This one was for a documentary that reportedly turned the Sala Grande into a full-on concert. Directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace and written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, the film follows Liam and Noel Gallagher's Live '25 reunion tour and features their first joint interviews in over 20 years.

Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? - 8 minutes

Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto

Starring Rodney Hicks, this one is based on the real testimony of Allen Nelson, a Black Vietnam veteran who spent his life speaking about the trauma of what he saw and did in the war. The reaction in the room was reportedly one of the most emotional of the festival.

Does an extended standing ovation equate to an Oscar win?

Not necessarily. Ovation length is more crowd enthusiasm than awards forecasting. But Venice has launched some of the biggest awards contenders of the past decade, so a loud reaction on the Lido is still one of the earliest real signals of the season. These five are worth keeping an eye on as the circuit heads into TIFF and beyond.

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