movies

Alex Gibney’s Elon Musk Documentary to Premiere in Venice — With a Nearly 4-Hour Runtime

Published

30 minutes ago

July 23, 2026

Alex Gibney‘s long-gestating Elon Musk documentary is finally ready for showtime. Musk, the Oscar winner’s years-in-the-making portrait of the controversial technocrat cum oligarch, will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September — and it arrives at a scale perhaps befitting the world’s first trillionaire: 232 minutes, just shy of four hours.

Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera revealed the selection in Rome Thursday while unveiling the festival’s 2026 lineup, and he paused to make sure the audience appreciated just how much Gibney has packed into his exhaustive examination. “I invite you to look at the duration of the movie — four hours,” Barbera said with a wry smile.

“[Gibney] traces the whole career — the contradictions, and the conditioning power that is centralized in the hands of a single man,” the festival chief added. “Consider a genius of capitalist entrepreneurship, but also a dangerous technocrat, with no moral scruples.”

Few recent documentaries of such high profile have had such a long and peculiar trip to screen. Gibney first revealed he was at work on the film in March 2023, billing it as a “definitive and unvarnished examination” of the Tesla, SpaceX and X chief. The director reportedly delivered a finished cut in early 2025 — only to return to the editing suite amid Musk’s vocal support and financial backing of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, followed by his stint next door to the Oval Office as the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). As Musk continued generating controversial headlines, those following Gibney’s project naturally began to wonder when and how the director would ever be able to wrap up the film.

Last summer, the film’s backers, HBO Documentary Films and Bleecker Street, acknowledged their director’s predicament, putting out a joint statement, saying: “The film continues to grow in scope as the story evolves.”

And there was still more to come… Last month, SpaceX’s record-shattering IPO — the largest public offering in history, raising some $75 billion at a roughly $1.8 trillion valuation — lifted Musk’s fortune to the mind-bogglingly obscene point that he is now regarded as the world’s first trillionaire.

Musk has been characteristically unrestrained in his reaction to the documentary.

“It’s a hit piece,” he posted on X when the project was first reported in 2023, prompting Gibney to reply: “How would you know?”

Musk also once tweeted — “Gibney is a douche” — to which, Gibney has said he responded: “douché.”

Bleecker Street will release Musk in U.S. theaters on Oct. 16, with HBO Documentary Films holding North American television and streaming rights and Black Bear handling international sales. Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions produced with Zhang Xin’s Closer Media, Double Agent and Anonymous Content.

Gibney has spent the past three decades of his career critiquing powerful institutions and the men who run them. He won the best documentary feature Oscar for 2007’s Taxi to the Dark Side, was nominated for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and won widespread critical acclaim for Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. He’s tackled Silicon Valley icons and villains before, too, with projects like Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine and the Elizabeth Holmes exposé The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. He is no stranger to the Lido, having premiered his Mikhail Khodorkovsky portrait Citizen K there in 2019.

The 83rd Venice Film Festival runs Sept. 2-12.

movies

Michelle Zhou’s Venice Horizons Title ‘Big Little Things’ Boarded By Moebius Entertainment For Sales

Published

13 minutes ago

July 23, 2026

qasimgillani

Hong Kong-based Moebius Entertainment has boarded international sales for Michelle Zhou’s Big Little Things, which has been selected to premiere in the Horizons section of this year’s Venice Film Festival.

The film follows a woman who returns to her hometown of Harbin after years living in the United States and finds herself caught between two realities: the life she has built with her girlfriend, and the expectations of her family and community.

Produced as a Hong Kong-US collaboration, the film explores identity, family, cultural displacement, and the difficult choices faced by those navigating between tradition and self-determination.

“Big Little Things represents the arrival of a distinctive new filmmaking voice,” said Fred Tsui, founder and CEO of Moebius Entertainment. “Michelle Zhou captures the quiet but profound conflicts that define many lives today – the tension between personal truth and the roles we inherit. Her film is deeply intimate yet universally resonant, and we believe audiences around the world will connect with the heroine’s journey.”

The film was previously presented with the Activator Market Potential Award at the 2025 Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (FPP) in Taipei, where it was selected among the year’s most promising projects from emerging Asian filmmakers.

Moebius Entertainment is handling festival representation and worldwide sales rights. The company also recently picked up Taiwanese filmmaker Fiona Roan Feng-I’s Happily Ever After, which will make its world premiere in the Special Presentations section of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

movies

Venice Biennale Head Slams EU For Pulling Funding Over Russia Invite

Published

37 minutes ago

July 23, 2026

qasimgillani

Venice Biennale Foundation President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco hit out at the European Commission on Thursday for its move to withdraw funding over Russia’s participation in its Art Biennale earlier this year.

Speaking in opening remarks of the press conference unveiling the lineup for 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival, Buttafuoco suggested the European Commission was “abandoning” the Biennale and its different chapters.

“They are abandoning us today because of a political decision, certainly not a legal decision, and certainly not a cultural decision. They are abandoning us in our journey, but La Biennale cannot accept that,” he said.

His comments follow an announcement earlier this week by the European Commission’s Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) that it was following through with a threat to end €2M ($2.3M) grant in response to the Biennale’s invite to Russia to participate in the Art Biennale.

The Biennale responded in a statement that it would lodge an appeal, noting that the withdrawn funds were not used for the Art Biennale but rather the activities of its Cinema Department, and in particular its Biennale College and the Venice Production Bridgeinitiatives.

The stand-off began with the opening of the Art Biennale in April, which was marked by protests over Russia’s return and the resignation of the international jury.

The European Union’s head of foreign policy Kaja Kallas said at the time that the invite to Russia violated EU sanctions imposed on Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the subsequent ongoing war.

Continuing his rebuttal at the film festival press conference, Buttafuoco said bowing to the EU’s demands would fly in the face of the Biennale’s principles.

“We would renounce our principles of freedom of expression, of research, fantasy, imagination, values that for 131 years have been characterized this institution,” he said.

Referring to the fable of The Wolf & the Lamb, Buttafuoco detailed three letters the European Commission had sent to the Biennale, suggesting the European Union was tantamount to the wolf, and the Cinema Department to the lamb.

“In the third letter, the wolf simply eats the lamb,” he said.

movies

‘Open Water’: BBC Casts Toheeb Jimoh, Dujonna Gift

Published

2 hours ago

July 23, 2026

qasimgillani

Emmy-nominated Ted Lasso star Toheeb Jimoh and Snow White’s Dujonna Gift are leading the BBC’s adaptation of Caleb Azumah Nelson’s debut novel Open Water.

Jimoh plays Marcus opposite Gift’s Effie. Marcus works in retail while trying to develop a career as a photographer. Effie is studying dance at university in Dublin. From the moment they meet, they feel an immediate, undeniable connection. But, as Marcus soon learns, Effie is in a relationship with Marcus’ friend Samuel. It’s a boundary that Marcus is unwilling to cross.

Jimoh was Emmy nominated for his role as Sam in Apple TV’s smash comedy Ted Lasso. Gift hasn’t acted in TV before but played Maple, Snow White’s best friend, in Disney’s 2025 live action adaptation.

Joining Jimoh and Gift are Rhianna Dorris (Lockwood & Co.), Lamar Waves (The Tower), Nadine Marshall (Random), Henrietta Pearl Quartey, Hope Ikpoku Jnr (Top Boy), Sekou Diaby (Animol, Boarders), Tara Tijani (Death in Paradise), Enva Lewis (How To Have Sex), Nash Nørgaard (Death of Ivan Ilyich), Stevie Odu (Boiling Point), Renee Bailey (Call The Midwife), Jayden Fowora Knight (The Nutcracker and the Four Realms), Janina Elkin (The Queen’s Gambit), Sherise Blackman (Bridgerton), Matthew Dunster (Coronation Street), Neve McDonnell (G’wed), Javier Bonaparte, Beaux Bryant (Stolen Dreams Redemption) and Mo Sesay (The Diplomat).

Unveiled by the BBC two years ago, the show is an adaptation of one of the buzziest books of the decade, with Azumah Nelson set to adapt and direct it himself. His second novel, Small Worlds, was previously optioned by Brock Media.

Azumah Nelson said: “The process of bringing Open Water from page to screen has been amazing, and I’ve found some truly outstanding collaborators. We rarely see love stories like this and everyone, from crew to cast, has put their whole heart into this production to make it happen. I can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on.”

Jimoh added: “This is a dream project for me. I fell in love with Marcus and Caleb’s story immediately. It’s such a sensitive, character rich, love story, delicately told and full of all the details of the south London I grew up in. It’s such an honour to be a part of this team and I can’t wait to share this one with you all.”

Open Water is made by Banijay-backed Mam Tor Productions and B-Side Productions for BBC iPlayer and BBC One. It was commissioned by Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama. Banijay Rights handles international distribution. Azumah Nelson is the lead writer and director and will also serve as executive producer alongside Tally Garner for Mam Tor Productions, Matimba Kabalika for B-Side Productions, and Rebecca Ferguson for the BBC. The series is produced by Karlvyn Dove. Acclaimed composer and musician Cassie Kinoshi will create an original score.