Director Lily Amirpour follows up her hit first film the vampire thriller A Girl Walks Home with The Bad Batch which screens in competition in Venice. 

Director and writer Tom Ford once again shows himself to be a master of visual style in this haunting romantic thriller Nocturnal Animals that screens in the main competition in Venice with an exploration of the thin lines between love and cruelty, and revenge and redemption the startles with a plot of twists and turns, violence and beauty. 

Director Oren Moverman returns to Berlin with his competition entry The Dinner boasting star power that includes Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan and Rebecca Hall.  Born in Tel Aviv the US based director and screenwriter has a prestigious track record as both. 

Director Todd Haynes scores a slot in the Cannes competition line-up with this seventh feature Wonderstruck based on author Brian Selznick’s critically acclaimed 2011 epic fable for children.  Selznick is also known as a children’s book illustrator and the Haynes film follows in this groove with the main fascination of the film being its striking visuals. Selznick also wrote the screenplay for the film.

Director Sofia Coppola has decided to do a remake of director Don Siegel’s Civil War made more than 40 years ago that starred Clint Eastwood. The decision is a strange one and the result is Beguiled a film that succeeds on some fronts but not on others.