Venice film festival 2021 roundup – a formidably good year on the Lido

Big name directors at their best feature alongside daring visionaries from the farther realms of art cinema - but to whom will Bong Joon-ho's jury award the Golden Lion?

Critics are allegedly very hard to please. There's a joke told in the 19th-century drama Lost Illusions, which premiered in Venice this week. Two critics are in a boat when they see Jesus walking on the water. One says to the other: Look at that - he can't even swim."

Yet this year on the Lido, the critics were dizzy with delight at a formidably good festival. Last year, the Mostra happened during the gap between European lockdowns, leaving viewers gratefully receptive to a superb selection - but this year's crop, miraculously, has outdone it. The competition jury - headed by Korean maestro Bong Joon-ho and including Chloe Zhao, director of 2020's Golden Lion winner Nomadland - will have a tough time picking the plums from this year's cornucopia.