Australian director Justin Kurzel’s latest crime thriller, The Order, made a significant impact at the Venice Film Festival, receiving an almost 10-minute standing ovation during its world premiere on Thursday evening. The applause, lasting precisely nine minutes and 23 seconds, took place in the prestigious Sala Grande, marking a standout moment in this year’s festival competition.
The film’s stars, including Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, and Jurnee Smollett, were in attendance and visibly moved by the audience’s enthusiastic response. The cast embraced each other as the applause grew louder with each credit roll, culminating in a warm acknowledgment from Jude Law, who waved to the crowd in gratitude.
Set against the backdrop of the 1980s Pacific Northwest, The Order delves into a gripping series of bank robberies and car heists that terrorized local communities. Jude Law portrays a lone FBI agent who begins to suspect that these crimes are not motivated by financial gain but are instead the work of a dangerous domestic terrorist group. This group, depicted in the film as the white supremacist gang known as “The Order,” is led by Hoult’s character.
The film is based on the 1989 non-fiction book The Silent Brotherhood by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, bringing a true-crime story to the big screen with a sense of urgency and relevance. At a press conference earlier in the day, Nicholas Hoult shared that he and Law avoided interacting for the first four weeks of filming to authentically portray their characters’ adversarial relationship.
Law remarked on the film’s contemporary significance, stating, “Sadly, the relevance speaks for itself. It felt like a piece of work that needed to be made now.” Director Justin Kurzel echoed this sentiment, explaining, “We live at a time now that was reflected in the film, where there is division, and there’s a lot of conversation about the future and about ideologies. The film was about an ideology that’s incredibly dangerous and how it can quickly take seed… I think that’s a timeless thing, not only in America but in Australia too.”
The Order is set for a U.S. release in December through Vertical, with international distribution handled by Amazon Prime Video. As anticipation builds, the film’s Venice premiere has undoubtedly set the stage for its wider release.
