The Young Pope Set for World Premiere at Venice Film Festival

LONDON: The first two episodes of the original series The Young Pope will be the Out-of-Competition special event at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival.

The world premiere of the first two episodes of The Young Pope will be screened on September 3 in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema at the Lido di Venezia. The Young Pope is an original production for Sky, HBO and CANAL+. Debuting in October, the series will be broadcast on Sky Atlantic in five countries (Italy, U.K., Germany, Ireland and Austria) and in France on CANAL+.

The series The Young Pope is produced by Wildside and co-produced by Haut et Court TV and MEDIAPRO. It is written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino and stars Jude Law, Diane Keaton, Silvio Orlando, Scott Shepherd, Cécile de France, Javier Cámara, Ludivine Sagnier, Tony Bertorelli and James Cromwell.

Alberto Barbera, director for the Venice Film Festival, commented: “It is a great pleasure, as well as a privilege, to present at the Venice Film Festival the world premiere of the first two episodes of Paolo Sorrentino’s much-awaited television series. He is a filmmaker who dares to take risks, who—fearlessly and with his customary creative and innovative spirit—tackles the language of television series, the new expressive frontier which many filmmakers, primarily foreign, have already tried their hand at. The result will not fail to kindle sincere emotion and, above all, invigorating and boundless surprise.”

Sorrentino said: “It is an honor for me to return to Venice. I was here with my first film and now I’m returning with my first television series. Since I don’t believe in coincidences, I prefer to think that, today like back then, the Festival is daring to choose. Fifteen years ago, it did so by selecting a young director’s first movie; this year by reaffirming its open-mindedness toward television, recognizing the role that series play in the evolution of visual communication.”