Werner Herzog Rejects Cannes for Venice Competition — SkimNews
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- Bucking Fastard was shot in February 2025 in Ireland and a Slovenian tourist cave, has played Venice and Telluride, and is seeking North American distribution ahead of Toronto and New York.
- Werner Herzog rejected Cannes’ official-selection offer because an out-of-competition berth would not let Kate and Rooney Mara compete for best actress; Venice admitted the film to competition.
- Kate and Rooney Mara found that singing and humming a childhood song produced their lockstep speech and movement after traditional breathing synchronization failed.
- Werner Herzog said he has another film nearly finished and is writing a Taschen photo book drawing on images from roughly 80 films, with no plan to stop working.
- David Lynch had become deeply immersed in transcendental meditation in his final years, which Herzog said made their contact difficult even though “Bucking Fastard” is dedicated to him.
- About a Hero was rejected by Herzog as an AI-generated act of mimicry; he called it a “failure” and invited AI to take over repetitive, formulaic work.
Why it matters: For Kate and Rooney Mara, the festival switch moved them from an out-of-competition slot to best-actress contention; for Herzog, Venice is now the launchpad for a film still seeking North American distribution before further screenings in Toronto and New York.
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