Venice premiere stirs debate about consent

A new Julia Roberts film about campus assault asks viewers to choose the questions rather than the answers.

Venice premiere tests audiences with ambiguous sexual assault drama

The Venice Film Festival opened with After The Hunt, a drama in which Julia Roberts plays Alma, a Yale professor caught between a star pupil and a colleague facing an accusation. The film presents both sides of the case without declaring a verdict, inviting viewers to weigh what they hear against what they believe. Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield play the student Maggie and the professor Hank, while Luca Guadagnino directs and Nora Garrett makes her screenwriting debut. Audiences and critics came away with mixed feelings: some praised Roberts’s performance and the film’s ethical murk, while others argued the movie uses ambiguity at the expense of clear discussion.

Roberts emphasized that the project aims to spark conversation rather than to send a simple message. She told reporters that the film asks viewers to confront old arguments and decide what they stand for, which she says is precisely how dialogue should work in today’s culture. Critics were divided on the result. Some outlets lauded the performances and the film’s daring approach; others argued the narrative leaves too much up in the air, risking misinterpretation of a deeply sensitive topic.

The film lands in a cultural moment where audiences increasingly demand certainty on tricky subjects even as some directors push for moral ambiguity. Its ambition is to provoke thinking aloud about consent, accountability and truth, but that very ambiguity risks leaving viewers unsettled or even polarized. The project leans on star power and a seasoned director to carry a difficult discussion, yet the reception suggests audiences may diverge on whether ambiguity serves the issue or merely delays accountability. Expect the conversation to spill from screens into panels and social feeds, testing how much ambiguity cinema can tolerate before it becomes a shield for uncomfortable questions.

Highlights

The real test is whether viewers carry the debate beyond the festival chatter.