Venice Film Festival highlights: Elon Musk Documentary and Cruz-Bardem Thriller

VENICE, Italy: A slew of high-profile films are debuting Tuesday at the Venice Film Festival, including Alex Gibney’s Elon Musk documentary, a psychological thriller with Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, and a drama from Casey Affleck. With a runtime of nearly four hours, including an intermission, "Musk” is a portrait of the world’s richest man and an investigation into the scope of his power and influence. Gibney, an Oscar-winning filmmaker who has profiled powerful organizations and people before, from Enron and Elizabeth Holmes to Scientology, told The Associated Press that he started off as a kind of admirer and hoped that Musk might sit down for an interview. "Ultimately he didn’t want to talk to me,” Gibney said. "Then you start digging into the facts and you follow them where they lead. And where they led for me was to a place that upended the myth, I would say, of Elon Musk as a kind of modern Leonardo da Vinci.” The film is expected in North American theaters in October. Real-life couple Cruz and Bardem will add some glamour to the day with the debut of their new film, "Bunker,” directed by Florian Zeller. The film is about an architect who agrees to build a survivalist bunker for a billionaire, and the decision has ramifications for his marriage. Zeller said he wrote the film for his stars specifically, who have appeared together in films many times going back to "Jamón Jamón.” Actors Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem attend the 83rd Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, September 7, 2026. REUTERS/Yara Nardi "‘Bunker’ touches on several times contemporary themes - fear of the future, ecological threats, rising social inequality, and rampant individualism-but it does so through a deeply personal lens: a couple struggling with each other,” Zeller said in his director’s statement. "I wanted to explore love, fidelity and forgiveness while placing the audience in a position of deliberate ambiguity.” Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger also star in the film, which Searchlight Pictures will release in theaters early next year. The film is playing in competition alongside titles such as "Wild Horse Nine” and "Ink,” and, like them, it’s one of the possible awards contenders in the Venice slate and is expected to have a qualifying run in 2026. Zeller’s film "The Father” won Anthony Hopkins a best actor Oscar. He also won for the screenplay. Also debuting is "Company,” a meditation on grief and compassion, which Affleck directed and co-wrote. The film, which is seeking distribution, is set in winter 1975, when a mysterious woman crashes a holiday gathering. The story then opens itself to another, with a moral debate at its center. "I spent a lot of my life looking over the ledger, keeping score, frustrated by the debt of kindness. Somewhere along the way I began to realize that the ledger is never balanced by the world. It’s balanced by what you contribute,” Affleck said in his director’s statement. "That’s what this film is reaching for.” "Company,” which is also in competition for the Golden Lion, stars Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn, and features Affleck’s children Atticus Affleck and Indiana Affleck. Winners chosen by the Maggie Gyllenhaal-led jury will be announced Saturday.