Bradley Cooper’s ‘Maestro’ Receives 7-Minute Standing Ovation At Venice Film Festival Premiere

Bradley Cooper appears to have another winner on his hands.

The actor-director’s latest film, “Maestro”, made its debut at the Venice International Film Festival this weekend, and received a rousing reception at its festival premiere.

As Variety reports, the Cooper-directed biopic — in which Cooper also portrays famed composer Leonard Bernstein — was met with a standing ovation that went on for a full seven minutes.

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While neither Cooper nor co-star Carey Mulligan (who plays Bernstein’s wife, Felicia Montealegre) were in attendance due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Bernstein’s three children — Jamie Bernstein, Alexander Bernstein and Nina Maria Felicia Bernstein — tearfully welcomed the applause, waving to the crowd.

As the end credits rolled, accompanied by one of their father’s rousing compositions, they could be seen cheering and dancing while motioning their arms as if conducting a symphony.

Leonard Bernstein’s children Jamie, Alex and Nina do their best impressions of their father’s conducting style during the standing ovation for #Maestro at Venice. pic.twitter.com/wuLJtK2mtb

— Variety (@Variety) September 2, 2023

In addition to Cooper and Mulligan, the cast of “Maestro” includes Matt Bomer as Bernstein’s lover, Maya Hawke as Bernstein’s daughter, Jamie, and Sarah Silverman as Bernstein’s sister, Shirley.

During a press conference ahead of the premiere, “Maestro” makeup designer Kazu Hiro responded to the backlash over the prosthetic nose he created for Bradley (who isn’t Jewish) to play the Jewish Bernstein, which some blasted as antisemitic.

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“I wasn’t expecting that to happen,” Hiro said, as reported by Variety.

“I feel sorry that I hurt some people’s feelings,” he added. “My goal was and Bradley’s goal was to portray Lenny as authentic as possible. Lenny had a really iconic look that everybody knows — there’s so many pictures out there because he’s photogenic, too — such a great person and also inspired so many people. So we wanted to respect the look too, on the inside. So that’s why we did several different tests and went through lots of decisions and that was the outcome in the movie.”

Bernstein’s three children issued a joint statement addressing the backlash.

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“It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of [Cooper’s] efforts. It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose,” the statement read. “Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we’re perfectly fine with that. We’re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well. Any strident complaints around this issue strike us above all as disingenuous attempts to bring a successful person down a notch — a practice we observed all too often perpetrated on our own father. At all times during the making of this film, we could feel the profound respect and yes, the love that Bradley brought to his portrait of Leonard Bernstein and his wife, our mother Felicia. We feel so fortunate to have had this experience with Bradley, and we can’t wait for the world to see his creation.”

“Maestro” debuts on Netflix on Dec. 20.