Affleck's 'Company' Earns 4.5-Minute Venice Ovation — SkimNews
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- Casey Affleck premiered his latest directorial effort "Company" at the Venice Film Festival in the Sala Grande on Tuesday, where it earned a 4½-minute standing ovation that died off after Affleck and the cast exited mid-applause
- Nick Nolte drew an extra-rousing cheer when he was presented at the start of the screening, while Ben Affleck sat beside the cast, clapping enthusiastically and filming the audience below in support of his brother
- "Company" opens on a winter night in 1975 with a mysterious woman named Evelyn arriving uninvited at a holiday gathering, then unfolds as a nested narrative spanning a 1953 Colorado blizzard rescue and frontier-era murders
- Affleck told Tuesday's press conference the film isn't "explicitly political" but said he was "responding in part to all the raging conflicts in the world, and to things inside myself"
- The cast includes Nolte, Ben Mendelsohn, Adelaide Clemens, Scoot McNairy, Emily Alyn Lind, Caylee Cowan, Atticus Affleck, and Indiana Affleck; Affleck's previous directorial effort was "Light of My Life" (2019), and he last appeared in Venice as an actor with "Dreamin' Wild" in 2022
- Producers on "Company" include Steven Schneider and Roy Lee via Spooky Features, alongside Catherine Caylee Cowan, Dan Lawler, Affleck, Sean Patrick O'Reilly, K. Asher Levin, Enzo Marc, and Anthony Katagas
Why it matters: The warm Venice reception — Nolte's standout cheer, the 4½-minute ovation, and Affleck's brothers-and-kids family production — positions 'Company' as a potential awards-season player for the famously press-shy director, whose last film 'Light of My Life' debuted at Berlin in 2019. With Affleck now explicitly linking the film's origins to 'raging conflicts in the world,' the premiere reframes his return as a statement of intent rather than a quiet comeback.
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