John Malkovick, who stars in the movie with Oscar winner Sam Rockwell, got emotional and director McDonagh looked touched as the cheering raged on.

As the applause continued, McDonagh and Rockwell went into the crowd, shaking hands and signing autographs.

Set in 1973, Wild Horse Nine follows two CIA officers (Malkovich and Rockwell) who are dispatched from Santiago to Easter Island shortly before the Chilean military coup, which overthrew socialist president Salvador Allende.

Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits and Parker Posey round out the ensemble.

During the screening, the audience broke out into applause when Malkovich’s character goes on a rant about cheese, and again when he expressed deep desire to visit Venice, Italy.

Wild Horse Nine, which competes for the Golden Lion, marks McDonagh’s third consecutive feature to launch at Venice after 2017’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and 2022’s The Banshees of Inisherin.

Three Billboards won Venice’s best screenplay prize before earning 7 Oscar nominations and two wins, for Frances McDormand and Rockwell.

My Oscar Book:

Five years later, The Banshees of Inisherin brought McDonagh another screenplay prize on the Lido and earned Colin Farrell the Volpi Cup for best actor before going on to score 9 Oscar nominations.

A scene-stealer in his decades-long Hollywood career — appearing in movies such as “Dangerous Liaisons,” “Being John Malkovich,” “In the Line of Fire” and “Empire of the Sun” — Malkovich has been nominated for two Supporting Actor Oscars but never won.

He said at the press conference. “For me, it’s a very nice thing. But the nicest thing is the film getting attention. It has several terrific performers, and it’s beautifully written and directed. That’s what matters to me.”