Venice today: Ellen Burstyn receives career award as Strippoli enters competition

Venice turns its attention to Ellen Burstyn and the third Italian film in competition, Paolo Strippoli’s L’estranea, a dark fairy tale built around unsettling pacts and consequences no one can foresee.

The film stars Jasmine Trinca, Romana Maggiora Vergano, Adriano Giannini and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. Its story begins when a woman suddenly arrives at her daughter’s home to reveal the truth about a family marked by a pact made many years earlier with a stranger. A secret kept for a long time now returns to demand its price.

Burstyn, the Oscar-winning actress known for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, will receive the festival’s second career Golden Lion. Across almost 60 years, she has created a remarkable gallery of women who shaped cinema and embodied the visions of major directors from different generations. Maggie Gyllenhaal, president of this year’s international competition jury, will deliver the tribute.

Gyllenhaal has also cast Burstyn in Flesh Impact, a short film about Marilyn Monroe, marking the centenary of Monroe’s birth. Dakota Johnson plays the star at the height of her fame, while Burstyn portrays a version of Marilyn the world has never known.

The competition also includes Look Back by Japanese master Hirokazu Koreeda. The film follows Fujino, a determined and talented teenager who dreams of becoming a manga artist, and Kyomoto, a withdrawn girl who spends nearly all her time drawing in her room. The two share a passion and pursue their dream for 13 years after growing up in a small town. In Orizzonti, Tommaso Landucci presents his intense debut, I figli della scimmia, starring Riccardo Scamarcio, Fausto Russo Alesi and Lidiya Liberman. It centres on Dario, a father devoted to his disabled child who also forms a close bond with his teenage nephew, taking on the paternal role he might otherwise have had.