Julia Defends New Venice Film From Feminist Backlash Claims

VENICE, Aug 29 - Julia Roberts made her Venice Film Festival red carpet debut on Friday with After the Hunt, rejecting suggestions that the drama undermines feminist causes by portraying a campus sexual assault case in ambiguous terms.

Directed by Italy’s Luca Guadagnino, the film follows Alma Olsson (Roberts), a Yale philosophy professor whose world unravels when her longtime colleague is accused by one of her students of sexual assault. The story examines how liberal academics grapple with loyalty, identity and generational divides.

Roberts pushed back at criticism that the film risks casting doubt on survivors, particularly Black women, while preserving ambiguity for male suspects.
“We’re not making statements, we are portraying people in moments of time,” she told reporters. “If making this movie does anything, getting everybody to talk to each other is the most exciting thing.”

The Oscar-winning actor, who plays a painkiller-addicted professor caught between personal loyalties and moral dilemmas, said she relished the role’s complexity:
“Trouble is where the juicy stuff is … once one domino falls, suddenly everywhere you turn there’s conflict.”

Guadagnino stressed the film avoids clear-cut verdicts:
“Everyone has their own truth. It’s not that one truth is more important than another,” he said, adding that the film is also a study of ambition and power within academia.

After the Hunt is screening out of competition at Venice and will not compete for the Golden Lion, which is awarded September 6.