I told you on June 19th that Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy” would be featured at the Venice Film Festival. And so it was announced this morning. Keep an eye on this film– in the 50th anniversary of the Manson murders, with Quentin Tarantino’s new film fantasizing a better life for Polanski, a great film from the Polish director would be quite a triumph.

Venice will also feature Brad Pitt in “Ad Astra,” Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” and Steven Soderbergh’s “The Laundromat.”

No sign of Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” (coming to the NY Film Fest) or Woody Allen’s “Rainy Day in New York” (which will open in Europe this fall).

“Ad Astra” must also be opening at the NY Film Festival, since it isn’t part of Toronto. That’s a good get for Kent Jones.

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP

IN COMPETITION

“The Truth,” Kore-eda Hirokazu (France, Japan) – OPENING FILM
“The Perfect Candidate,” Haifaa Al-Mansour (Saudi Arabia, Germany)
“About Endlessness,” Roy Andersson (Sweden)
“Wasp Network,” Olivier Assayas (France, Belgium)
“Marriage Story,” Noah Baumbach (U.S.)
“Guest of Honor,” Atom Egoyan (Canada)
“Ad Astra,” James Gray (U.S.)
“A Herdade,” Tiago Guedes (Portugal, France)
“Gloria Mundi,” Robert Guediguian (France)
“Waiting for the Barbarians,” Ciro Guerra (Italy)
“Ema,” Pablo Larrain (Chile)
“Saturday Fiction,” Lou Ye (China)
“Martin Eden,” Pietro Marcello (Italy, France, Germany)
“La Mafia non è più quella di Una Volta,” Franco Maresco
“The Painted Bird,” Vaclav Marhoul (Czech Republic)
“The Mayor of Rione Sanità,” Mario Martone (Italy, France)
“Babyteeth,” Shannon Murphy (Australia)
“Joker,” Todd Philips (U.S.)
“An Officer and a Spy,” Roman Polanski (France)
“The Laundromat,” Steven Soderbergh (U.S.)
“No. 7 Cherry Lane,” Yonfan (China)

OUT OF COMPETITION – Fiction

“The Burnt Orange Heresy,” Giuseppe Capotondi (U.K., Italy) – CLOSING FILM
“Seberg,” Benedict Andrews (U.S.)
“Vivere,” Francesca Archibugi (Italy)
“Mosul,” Matthew Michael Carnahan (U.S.)
“Adults in the Room,” Costa-Gavras (France, Greece)
“The King,” David Michod (U.K., Hungary)
“Tutto il mio folle amore,” Gabriele Salvatores (Italy)

OUT OF COMPETITION – Non-Fiction

“Woman,” Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Anastasia Mikova (France)
“Roger Waters: Us + Them,” Roger Waters (U.K.)
“I Diari di Angela – Noi Due Cineasti. Capitolo Secondo. Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi (Italy)
“Citizen K,” Alex Gibney (U.K., U.S.)
“Citizen Rosi,” Didi Gnocchi, Carolina Rosi (Italy)
“The Kingmaker,” Lauren Greenfield (U.S.)
“State Funeral,” Sergei Loznitsa (The Netherlands, Lithuania)
“Collective,” Alexander Nanau (Romania, Luxembourg)
“45 Seconds of Laughter,” Tim Robbins (U.S.)
“Il pianeta in mare,” Daniele Segre (Italy)

OUT OF COMPETITION – Special Screenings

“No One Left Behind,” Guillermo Arriaga (Mexico)
“Electric Swan,” Konstantina Kotzamani (France, Greece, Argentina)
“Irreversible – Inversion Integrale,” Gaspar Noe (France)
“ZeroZeroZero,” (Episodes 1 and 2) Stefano Sollima (Italy, France)
“The New Pope” (Episodes 2 and 7) Paolo Sorrentino (Italy, U.S.)
“Never Just a Dream: Stanley Kubrick And Eyes Wide Shut,” Matt Wells (U.K.)
“Eyes Wide Shut,” Stanley Kubrick (U.S., U.K.)

HORIZONS

“Pelican Blood,” Katrin Gebbe (Germany, Bulgaria)
“Zumiriki,” Oskar Alegria (Spain)
“Bik Eneich – Un Fils,” Mehdi M. Barsaoui (Tunisia, France, Lebanon, Qatar)
“Blanco en Blanco,” Theo Court (Spain, Chile, France, Germany)
“Mes Jours de Gloire,” Antoine De Bary (France)
“Nevia,” Nunzia De Stefano (Italy)
“Moffie,” Oliver Hermanus (South Africa)
“Hava, Maryam, Ayesha,” Sahara Karimi (Afghanistan)
“Rialto,” Peter Mackie Burns (Ireland)
“The Criminal Man,” Dmitry Mamuliya (Georgia, Russia)
“Revenir,” Jessica Palud (France)
“Giants Being Lonely,” Great Patterson (U.S.)
“Balloon,” Pema Tseden (China)
“Verdict,” Raymund Ribas Gutierrez (Philippines)
“Just 6.5,” Saeed Roustaee (Iran)
“Shadow of Water,” Sasidharan Sanal Kumar (India)
“Sole,” Carlo Sironi (Italy)
“Madre,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen (Spain, France)
“Atlantis,” Valentyn Vasyanovych (Ukraine)

You would not know by the looks of the crowd on Tuesday night that the movie biz’s premiere party thrower, Peggy Siegal, was having a difficult week.

Her crowd showed up and showed support for at the Landmark 57 Theater and Ousia restaurant premiere of the hot foreign film of the summer, “Tel Aviv On Fire.”

Oscar winning director Barry Levinson hosted the screening without question. He and Peggy go back to “Diner.”

Among the guests who loved the movie, directed by Sameh Zoabi, a Palestinian who grew up in Israel and went to Columbia University, were Oscar winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple, famed journalist Gay Talese and his famed book editor wife Nan; former NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly and his wife Veronica, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, “GoodFellas” writer and equally famed journalist Nick Pileggi, as well as movie and theater producer Jean Doumanian, former CNN and Fox correspondent Paula Zahn, and award winning producer-writer James Schamus.

The group– which also included Jeffrey Epstein journalist Vicky Ward–was happy to come support Peggy, but also perplexed by the viciousness of the recent pieces describing Siegal’s friendship with Epstein. Ward, who knows everything about Epstein, lamented, “I think Peggy was conned by Jeffrey.”

The many guests concurred, and were surprised to learn about studio defections based on innuendo.

“No one knows how to get people together to have a meaningful impact for a new film,” said more than one guest.

Siegal is out of town. But her staff and that of CohenMedia, which releases “Tel Aviv on Fire” on August 2nd, knew the drill. It didn’t hurt that the movie is sensationally funny, witty, and human. The director mixed Israeli and Palestinian stars in a well written saga of a live Palestinian soap opera that’s become a huge TV hit in both countries. Everyone is hanging on the lives of the characters.

Kais Nashif (looking like a Middle Eastern Stephen Mangan from “Episodes”) plays the Palestinian producer’s ne’er do well nephew Salaam who winds up writing scripts for the show, set in 1967. Salaam becomes entangled with an Israeli border crossing captain (Yaniv Biton) who starts helping him, surreptitiously, with the show and becomes more demanding about the characters’ outcomes.

Zoabi cleverly entwines the Israeli and Palestinians as they go back and forth across the border until you realize, late in the game, he’s declared peace among these people. He also blends the current day mishegos at the soap with the soap itself to the point where it’s almost hard to remember if the past is influencing the present or vice versa. The soap’s main characters a triangle of a female spy, an Arab “freedom fighter,” and an Israeli soldier. Somehow Salaam must resolve their story live, while two countries watch and root for their own sides.

Great movie, great night, and Peggy’s crowd is looking forward to an Oscar season full of these kinds of films.

The 2019 Toronto Film Festival looks pretty swell. No Scorsese “Irishman,” but everything else we need, want, and expect including Tom Hanks in the Mister Rogers movie “Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Western Stars,” Edward Norton’s “Motherless Brooklyn,” Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain and Glory” with Antonio Banderas’s Cannes winning performance, and Todd Philip’s “Joker.” They’ve also got Isabelle Huppert in “Frankie,” Renee Zellweger as “Judy,” and “The Goldfinch.”