Kristen Stewart’s Princess Diana Biopic ‘Spencer’ Stuns Venice, Earning Oscar Buzz

Judging by the rapturous response at the premiere of Spencer at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, the 31-year-old Kristen Stewart has demonstrated a remarkably dazzling onscreen transformations.
As the closing credits of the dramatic film, which bills itself as a “fable” based on true events, the Venice crowd hooted and cheered, showering Stewart with a three-minute standing ovation.
Stewart looked teary-eyed, as she hugged director Pablo Larraín (who also 2016’s directed “Jackie,” starring Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis following the assassination of JFK).
The movie is sure to be the subject of countless think pieces and controversies, as it shows Diana teetering on the brink of a nervous breakdown. In the film, the Princess of Wales repeatedly throws up as she grapples with bulimia, talks about cutting herself and, in one particularly funny scene, tells her dresser to give her privacy so she can masturbate.
Stewart’s performance is sure to draw comparisons to Emma Corrin’s portrait of Diana in The Crown, it also shares quite a bit in common with Helen Mirren’s turn as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen. Mirren won the Venice and the Oscar Award for that film in 2007.
There’s already loud buzz in Venice that the role will likely land Stewart her first Oscar nomination.
Spencer, which is distributed by Neon in the US, opens in theaters on Nov. 5.