‘Blonde,’ a film starring Marilyn Monroe, is leading the Netflix pack of Venice hopefuls. With Netflix hit headlining the Lido landing in September, the 2018 Venice Film Festival is getting ready to release a formidable lineup of Oscar contenders sponsored by boatloads of Hollywood luminaries.

Variety has learned that four Netflix original films are in the Venice mix as artistic director Alberto Barbera continues to finalise his decision.

Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn Monroe drama “Blonde,” starring Ana de Armas (“No Time to Die”) as the Hollywood icon; Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise,” starring Greta Gerwig, Adam Driver, and Jodie Turner-Smith and based on Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel of the same name; and Alejandro G. Inarritu’s new film “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” starring

Iárritu’s modern tragedy “Athena,” co-written by the French “The World is Yours” director and “Les Miserables” filmmaker Ladj Ly, tells the story of a Mexican journalist, file or document filmmaker who is going through an existential crisis.
Due to the Cannes Film Festival’s requirement that competitive movies undergo a French theatrical release followed by a 15-month delay before being released on Netflix, Venice has in recent editions become a privileged launching pad for Netflix’s Oscar contenders.

Last year, Venice screened Jane Campion’s Netflix original “The Power of the Dog,” one of seven films from the Lido that have gone on to win best director Oscars in Venice’s nine editions.

Other films include Alfonso Cuarón’s “Gravity” (2013), Alejandro G. Iarritu’s “Birdman” (2014), Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land” (2016), Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” (2017), Cuarón’s “Roma” (2018), and Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” (2020).

Though Barbera hasn’t seen many of the high-profile games in the mix from US studios and streamers — and he’s the one who needs to grant the ultimate OK — the list of submissions being inspected by his partners is said to contain a slew of other eagerly anticipated US studio titles.

“Bones and All,” starring Luca Guadagnino and Timothée Chalamet, “Ticket to Paradise,” starring Julia Roberts and George Clooney, and psychological thriller “Don’t Worry Darling,” starring Harry Styles and Florence Pugh.

Chalamet is expected to return to the Palazzo del Cinema‘s lengthy red carpet with Guadagnino’s MGM road movie, after causing a paparazzi feeding frenzy last year for “Dune.”

Meanwhile, Roberts will make his debut appearance in Venice in the Universal film “Ticket to Paradise,” directed by Ol Parker. Of course, the same could be said for Styles, who is transitioning from pop star to actor for the second time following “Dunkirk” in Olivia Wilde’s Warner Bros. film “Don’t Worry Darling.”

Florian Zeller’s Sony film “The Son,” which follows the director’s Oscar-winning “The Father” and starring Vanessa Kirby, is also in the mix.

Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern. Todd Field’s “Tar,” starring Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tár, one of the world’s best orchestra directors and the first female conductor of a large German orchestra, is out now via Focus Features. Blanchett is a veteran of the Venice Film Festival, having presided over the main jury in 2020.
The 75th Venice Biennale will take place from August 31 to September 10. On July 27, the lineup will be revealed.