Venice Critics’ Week Unveils 39th Edition Line-Up Featuring Omnes Films’ ‘No Sleep Till’

Venice Critics’ Week has unveiled the selection for its 39th edition running from August 28 to September 7.

The seven titles in Competition include U.S-French filmmaker Alexandra Simpson’s debut feature No Sleep Till, set against the background of a Florida coastal town in the lead-up to a hurricane.

The film is produced by Tyler Taormina under the banner of the Omnes Films collective which made a splash at Cannes this year with two films in Directors’ Fortnight: Tyler’s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point and Eephus by Carson Lund.

Also out of the U.S., Micheal Premo will unveil his timely documentary Homegrown, following three right-wing activists as they criss-cross the country in 2020, campaigning for Donald Trump.

Further contenders include UK-French director Jethro Massey’s debut film Paul & Paulette Take A Bath, about a American photographer and a French girl who bond in Paris around a dark game involving the reenactment of scenes of notorious crimes from bygone eras at the sites they occurred.

Massey also produces under the banner of his UK company Film Fabric.

The competition also features Iranian-Italian director Milad Tangshir’s Anywhere Anytime about a young illegal immigrant, whose joy at landing a job as a delivery boy is short-lived when his bike is stolen, sending him on a desperate odyssey across the city.

It is produced by top Italian indie producers Marta Donzelli and Gregorio Paonessa at Vivo Film, in co-production with Young Films.

Out of Asia, Vietnamese filmmaker Dương Diệu Linh competes with female-focused drama Don’t Cry Butterfly, about a woman who enlists a spell master to win back her husband after she discovers he has been cheating on her on live TV.

Further contenders include Austrian director Bernherd Wenger’s Peacock about a young man who offers his services as a fake stand-in partner but has trouble being his real self.

Egyptian director Muhammed Hamdy will also unveil Perfumed With Mint about two friends running from the ghosts of their past and fears over their future.

The sidebar will open with French director Aude Léa Rapin’s fantasy drama Planet B and close with Lawrence Valin’s Little Jaffna, set against the backdrop of the