Big name directors at their best feature alongside daring visionaries from the farther realms of art cinema – but to whom will Bong Joon-ho’s jury award the Golden Lion?
![Venice film festival 2021 roundup – a formidably good year on the Lido](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f1031ae9d05ee588cc0df213684e05413d6883e5/0_109_4928_2957/master/4928.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdG8tZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=e7e4f1f6bb468678d9a908ad7fd1b896)
Critics are allegedly very hard to please. There’s a joke told in the 19th-century drama Lost Illusions, which premiered in Venice this week. Two critics are in a boat when they see Jesus walking on the water. One says to the other: “Look at that – he can’t even swim.”
Yet this year on the Lido, the critics were dizzy with delight at a formidably good festival. Last year, the Mostra happened during the gap between European lockdowns, leaving viewers gratefully receptive to a superb selection – but this year’s crop, miraculously, has outdone it. The competition jury – headed by Korean maestro Bong Joon-ho and including Chloé Zhao, director of 2020’s Golden Lion winner Nomadland – will have a tough time picking the plums from this year’s cornucopia.