*Angelina Jolie poses for photographers at 'Maria' film premiere at the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP).*

The Venice Film Festival is well underway, and the premiere of ‘Maria’ was met with lead actress Angelina Jolie and director Pablo Larraín leading the red carpet. The film received an 8-minute standing ovation, bringing Jolie to tears.

FilmNation has closed deals across Europe for ‘Maria’ while Netflix will handle distribution in the US.

‘Maria’ is a biopic about opera singer Maria Callas’ final years living in Paris in the late 1970s. Pablo Larraín directed a script penned by Steven Knight. Larraín’s previous works include ‘Jackie’ and ‘Spencer.’

‘Maria’ debuts with lukewarm critical appeal, helming 70% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.5/10 on IMDb, and a 63 on Metacritic.

The international sales agents for the film struck deals with Studiocanal for distribution in the UK — among specified distributors for each region in Europe.

“I’m excited to partner again with the Netflix team who care so passionately about movies,” Larraín said in a statement about the deal. “This film is my most personal work yet. It is a creative imagining and psychological portrait of Maria Callas, who, after dedicating her life to performing for audiences around the world, decides finally to find her own voice, her own identity and sing for herself.”

Angelina Jolie trained for seven months to prepare for the role, and her voice has been confirmed to be blended with Callas’ on-screen.

“My first days, Larraín was very good to me in that we started in a more intimate first with very few crew members,” Jolie said. “And we ended at La Scala with everyone. So I had a little time to get my nerve. But this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I was terrified.”

Larraín then touched on the complexities of what it takes to make opera singing authentic and believable.

“Opera requires a very particular style of singing — in the pitch, the color, the breathing, the posture,” said Larraín. “Sometimes it’s a tiny bit of Angie and mostly Maria and then sometimes it’s more, but it’s always there. We needed to do that because it’s the only way that she could properly prepare the character, play it right and then create the right illusion.”

Reactions to ‘Maria’ have all said one similar thing: it’s Angelina Jolie’s best performance to date.

READ MORE: TIFF Industry Speaker Panels Include Zoe Saldaña And Cate Blanchett

TRENDING NEWS