Venice film festival 2023: our critic’s picks of 10 to watch

Poor Things
Yorgos Lanthimos has created one of the hottest tickets at Venice this year: a surreal science-fantasy based on the novel by Alasdair Gray. Emma Stone plays Bella, a young woman apparently brought back to life by hubristic scientist Dr Godwin Baxter, played by Willem Dafoe.

Hoard
British director Luna Carmoon makes her feature debut at Venice with this fiercely acted and compelling character study. Saura Lightfoot Leon plays Maria, a young woman who has grown up in care after a difficult relationship with her mother, played by Hayley Squires.

The Beast
A very strange and sensually disturbing disquisition with hints of Huxley and Ballard, about the past, present and future of humanity, on the point of being deconstructed by artificial intelligence. Léa Seydoux and George MacKay play a woman and man who meet during the Paris floods of 1910, the LA earthquake of 2014 and at a DNA-purification facility in 2044.