At the 81st Venice International Film Festival (August 28 – September 7, 2024), the documentary film Wishing on a Star, directed by Peter Kerekes, will have its world premiere. As part of the program for film professionals, the upcoming film Becoming Ema will also be presented.
The renowned director and producer Peter Kerekes returns to Venice after three years, having won the Best Screenplay Award for his film 107 Mothers. The documentary Wishing on a Star will compete in the Orizzonti section, and after its world premiere, the film will continue its festival journey at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it will be screened in the TIFF Docs section. The documentary comedy explores the search for human happiness. The Italian astrologist Lucciana can alter the destinies of people. On their birthdays they have to travel to whatever location on Earth has the ideal constellation of planets over it. They will be reborn on that day and so be able to change their nature. On the one hand, the film follows the everyday (and unchanging) life of the fortune-teller who changes the lives of people while, on the other hand, it follows five protagonists who set out to various places in the world in order to change their lives.
Representatives of the upcoming documentary film Becoming Ema (directed by Patricia Drati), which was selected for the Venice Gap-Financing Market, will also travel to Venice. The platform aims to support European and international producers in securing financing for their projects through individual meetings with potential and relevant international experts. Becoming Ema is a filmic exploration of motherhood as a calling, a struggle and above all a journey. It shows the immense fragility and strength that comes when a woman becomes a mother, as well as the beauty of authentic living, but also examines the consequences of our choices.
