No Hollywood star seems as intrinsically tied to Venice as George Clooney.
Twenty-seven years ago he attended his first Venice Film Festival with the instant classic “Out of Sight”; 20 years ago, it’s where he debuted his sophomore film, “Good Night, and Good Luck,” which earned him his first best director nomination; and 11 years ago, it’s where he exchanged vows with then Amal Alamuddin, at the Aman Venice, a five-star hotel perched alongside the Grand Canal.
Venice is a city that he, like many, thinks is one of the most beautiful in the world. Unlike most people, he also owns 15-bedroom villa a few hours away on Lake Como that famously co-starred in “Ocean’s Twelve.”
This year he’ll be back on the Lido again with Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” in which he plays a middle-aged movie star on a journey through Europe with his manager, played by Adam Sandler. And his longtime friend and oft co-star Julia Roberts is making her Venice debut this year with “After the Hunt.”
Here are some of Clooney’s most memorable Venice moments.
1998: “Out of Sight” As legend has it, Clooney’s long term love affair with Venice may have begun with the festival’s premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s Elmore Leonard adaptation “Out of Sight.” Then 37 and doing press alongside Jennifer Lopez, the actor would also make another big jump soon: Leaving “ER” that February.
2003: “Intolerable Cruelty” This Coen brothers joint, co-starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, premiered out of competition at the 60th Venice Film Festival, alongside titles like “Matchstick Men,” “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” and “The Dreamers.” Clooney’s nearby Italian residence was already as famous as him, and a stakeout spot for amateur and professional paparazzi.
In a profile that fall, while shooting “Ocean’s Twelve,” Vanity Fair writer Ned Zeman observed: “That an affable, self-effacing Kentucky-born Hollywood actor is fast becoming the most popular public figure in Italy says a little about Italy and a lot about Clooney, who isn’t Italian, doesn’t speak Italian, and lives here only in summertime.”
2005: “Good Night and Good Luck” Clooney’s acclaimed black-and-white dramatization of journalist Edward R. Murrow’s clash with Joseph McCarthy began its successful run in competition at the 62nd Venice Film Festival. Though it lost the Golden Lion to Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” it did go on to pick up six Oscar nominations including for Clooney’s directing.
2007: “Michael Clayton” Tony Gilroy’s “Michael Clayton,” which nabbed Clooney an Oscar nomination for his turn as the titular law firm fixer, played in competition at Venice. The top prize went again to an Ang Lee film: “Lust, Caution,” which also beat out the likes of “I’m Not There,” “Atonement” and “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”
2008: “Burn After Reading” This Coen brothers comedy featuring Clooney and Brad Pitt opted to debut out of competition in the opening night slot. He said it completed his “trilogy of idiots” that he’d played for the Coens, including “Intolerable Cruelty” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” “Looking at the parts we are playing, I’m very concerned about what you think of us,” Clooney said at the press conference. Pitt, who’d won the festival’s acting prize the year prior, added: “Like George ... I’m not sure if I should be flattered or insulted.”
2011: “The Ides of March” Another opening night, out of competition slot debut for this Clooney-directed campaign thriller starring Ryan Gosling and Philip Seymour Hoffman. As usual, Clooney was peppered with political questions in which he observed that, “it’s a very difficult time to govern.”
2013: “Gravity” Alfonso Cuarón’s “Gravity” opened the 70th edition of the Venice Film Festival before going on to win seven Oscars. Clooney, of course, attended the premiere alongside Sandra Bullock and he was self-deprecating about his role: “There were only two parts and Sandy had the other one, so I felt like this was the only one I could get away with.”
2014: George and Amal get married The canals were packed with paparazzi for the nuptials of one of Hollywood’s favorite bachelors. On Sept. 27, Clooney, then 53, and Alamuddin, then 36, exchanged vows in front of 100 of their closest friends and family, including Bono and Matt Damon, at the luxury hotel Aman Grand Canal, originally a grand palazzo built in 1550. She wore a custom Oscar de la Renta dress, of French lace, pearls and diamanté accents. He wore a black wool/cashmere Giorgio Armani tuxedo.
2017: “Suburbicon” Clooney returned to the festival with another of his directing projects, “Suburbicon,” a dark comedic satire about a seemingly idyllic 1950s community with Damon and Julianne Moore. This festival was especially notable for it being the Clooneys’ first public appearance since the birth of their twins, Alexander and Ella, a few months prior.
2023: Spotlight on Amal This time George was the plus one to Amal, who was receiving an award from the Diane von Furstenberg and The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation for her work as a human rights lawyer. The power couple gave the festival some much-needed star power amid the actors strike with an appearance at the adjacent DVF Awards. “I am here in Venice with my husband; he is a rising star,” she said that night. “I just wanted to say, you, my love, like this city, take my breath away.”
2024: “Wolfs” Clooney and Pitt reunited for the Jon Watts action comedy “Wolfs,” that played out of competition. But the spotlight was less on the film and more on the off-screen drama of the AppleTV+ produced film only getting a limited theatrical release, and his then-recent New York Times op-ed urging President Joe Biden to end his reelection bid.
“The person who should be applauded is the president who did the most selfless thing anyone’s done since George Washington,” Clooney said. “All the machinations that got us there, none of that’s going to be remembered. And it shouldn’t be. What should be remembered is the selfless act.”
