Venice Critics’ Week Lineup: Shalini Adnani’s Family Drama ‘Our Share of Sand,’ AI-Assisted Colombian Doc ‘The End of Times’ and More
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- Venice Critics' Week revealed seven competition features, all first-time director debuts and world premieres, running alongside the 83rd Venice Film Festival (Sept. 2-12)
- Shalini Adnani's London-shot debut "Our Share of Sand" — about a 12-year-old returning to rural India to reconnect with her estranged father — headlines the lineup
- Colombia lands two competition entries: AI-assisted political hybrid "The End of Times" (Bibiana Rojas Gómez, Juan David Cárdenas) exploring colonialism and capitalism, and Sebastián Múnera's "Meteorite," set at the former estate of Pablo Escobar
- Italy contributes three films, including in-competition "Before the War" (Tommaso Usberti) about a young man in a Northern Italian racist milieu, plus out-of-competition opener "Giaffa the Great" and rap musical closer "Rider"
- Remaining competition titles are Tunisian dystopian drama "The H@llow Man" (set in 2059 with a memory-regulating biochip), Chinese "Zoom In, Zoom Out," and Brazilian "London"
- All seven entries compete for the Lion of the Future prize worth $100,000, alongside titles in Venice's official selection
- Critics' Week general delegate Beatrice Fiorentino called the slate "fierce and independent, daring and vibrant," framing it as cinema asserting its "cruciality" amid industry turmoil
Why it matters: Critics' Week is the festival's launchpad for new talent, and this slate concentrates that function: every one of the seven competition entries is a first-time director, and they are competing for the $100,000 Lion of the Future prize attached to Venice's official selection — making the section a high-profile cash-incentivized gateway for emerging filmmakers alongside the main competition.
