The 77th Venice Film Festival wrapped today with the Golden Lion going to Chloe Zhao's Nomadland (which we'd predicted as far back as our annual April Foolish Predictions to be in the forthcoming Best Picture and Best Director lineups (we'll update all those charts this week). Venice wasn't the star-studded affair it usually is due to the shortage of travel and the ongoing troubles of the pandemic but they shouldered on. Cate Blanchett was in town for the whole festival as the President of the Jury and she made the all too rare decision to be sustainably fashionable by wearing only red carpet looks she'd worn before at other glitzy events. But her superpower, well one of them at any rate, is to make any year's fashions look utterly timeless.
29 other looks after the jump from the small batch of stars who went to Venice...
Lotte Verbeek, Cate, and Tilda Swinton in the coolest set of outdoor pajamas we've seen at a festival since Ryan Gosling's much obsessed over Cannes look a few years back.
Actress Romola Garai, promoting her new film Miss Marz (in competition) and celebrated playwright Jeremy O Harris both attended the festival. The Crown's new Princess Diana, Emma Corrin, also showed and kept a Venice diary for Vogue magazine.
Maya Hawke made lots of headlines with her Versace gown to promote her premiere Mainstream. Katherine Waterston was in Venice for her premiere The World to Come which takes place on the American frontier of 1850. And here's Cate again. There's never enough Cate.
It's a chic lineup of filmmakers: Mati Diop (of Atlantics fame), Gia Coppola (Sofia's niece), and the legendary Claire Denis (Beau Travail, White Material, High Life)
Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Colour), Mati Diop again, and Vanessa Kirby (The Crown) were all in town to support new projects. Kirby's film Pieces of a Woman was in competition.
James Norton, last seen in Little Women, headlines the new Italian world premiere Nowhere Special (which is in English) about a dying single father who is trying to find a home for his young son. Director Małgorzata Szumowska from Poland was there to represent her new Oscar submission Never Gonna Snow Again which received strong reviews. We don't normally include photos when the full gown isn't visible but we couldn't find a full length picture and isn't that texture amazing? She looks stunning.
And finally in this line up is one of the best young actresses working Raffey Cassidy (Killing of a Sacred Deer, Vox Lux) was also in Venice though we're not sure why since her next project hasn't started filming yet. However several of the stars of Brady Corbet's next film The Brutalist, including Cassidy, were in town so perhaps it was a funding trip?
Amira Casar (Call Me By Your Name) who co-starred in the Venice premiere Honey Cigar and Italian TV star Livio Beshir hit the red carpet.
And here's Cate again, away from the carpet but she's been in Venice the whole festival as President of the Jury. Her t-shirt here is a political statement in support of The University of Theater and Film Arts, in Hungary. They're underfunded and under attack from their government.
Stacy Martin (Nymphomaniac) who will also be in The Brutalist was in Venice to promote the French competition film Amants (Lovers). She headlines with two French male movie stars we love, Pierre Niney and Benoît Magimel.
There's Tilda Swinton again looking ultra stylish just walking the Venice streets -- you wear outfits this chic to run errand, too, right? And finally Cate in black and white on Venice's pristinely red carpet.
Raffey Cassidy again. Plus rising star Nathalie Emmanuel. And look it's the ever watchable French movie star Ludivine Sagnier (why haven't we heard of any new films of hers Stateside?) who served on the Venice jury with Blanchett & Co.
Matt Dillon and Cate Blanchett, the "Hollywood" members of the jury, walking the carpet together.
Venice is now a wrap. More on the winning movies a bit later.