Venice Days Unveils Female-Centric Selection, Kicking Off With Lili Horvát’s ‘My Notes on Mars’ Starring Mackenzie Davis and Rupert Friend
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- Giornate Degli Autori (Venice Days) unveiled 25 world premieres for its 23rd edition running Sept. 2–12, with 14 of the films directed by women and an opening selection artistic director Gaia Furrer called "a patchwork of genres."
- Lili Horvát's 'My Notes on Mars' opens the section — her first English-language feature, starring Mackenzie Davis and Rupert Friend as a married astrophysicist who vanishes on a hike and reappears on the day of her own memorial, remembering only her Mars research.
- An all-female jury led by Spanish director Carla Simón ('Alcarràs,' 'Romeria') will judge 10 competition titles, joined by Beirut's Metropolis Cinema founder Hania Mroue and Italian director-producer Sara Fgaier.
- Competition entries include Nicola Sorcinelli's 'Balcanica' about Afghan musicians traveling the Balkan route after music is banned, Damilola Orimogunje's 'Dear Ajayi' about two estranged Nigerian sisters reunited at a wake, and Robert Guédiguian's 'A Woman Today' about a finance executive assaulted by a colleague.
- Special events include Francesca Archibugi's documentary on radical feminist art critic Carla Lonzi and Léa Domenach's closing film 'A Man's Skin' — a queer Renaissance-era musical comedy reuniting her with Catherine Deneuve.
- Mona Fastvold and Claire Denis directed shorts for the Prada-commissioned Miu Miu Women's Tales series screening alongside the lineup.
- The edition is dedicated to Giorgio Gosetti, who founded Venice Days in 2004 — modeled on Cannes' Directors' Fortnight — and died in March at age 70; organizers called him "its guiding spirit" for 23 uninterrupted years.
Why it matters: Artistic director Gaia Furrer's curatorial choice — 14 of 25 premieres from women directors plus an all-female jury led by Carla Simón — is a deliberate programming statement from an independent section that runs parallel to Venice's official selection, while the Gosetti dedication signals continuity of the auteur-driven identity he built since 2004.
