‘Moolah’ brings journalist-turned-filmmaker Jérôme Pierrat to Venice with a fiction directorial debut

The Venice Film Festival is set to host the world premiere of Moolah, a new fiction feature that marks the directorial debut of French journalist Jérôme Pierrat, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter on Aug. 28, 2026. The film will screen in the festival’s Horizons section, where the program highlights emerging voices and first or second works alongside other boundary-pushing projects.

Pierrat, who has previously built a career as a journalist investigating organized crime in France, makes the jump to feature filmmaking with Moolah. The Hollywood Reporter describes the project as a fictional work that draws on Pierrat’s experience covering organized crime, though the report does not provide additional plot specifics in the material provided for this story.

As part of its Venice coverage, The Hollywood Reporter published exclusive clips from the film, previewing what the outlet characterized as a career re-start of sorts for Pierrat. The clips were presented as part of the festival rollout, giving audiences and industry buyers a first look at the tone and staging of the feature before its Horizons premiere.

The report frames Moolah as a reboot of Pierrat’s professional trajectory, centered on his move from reporting to directing. It emphasizes that the filmmaker’s previous work has focused on organized crime, and that the new project is intended as a fiction feature rather than a direct adaptation of his investigative journalism, according to the account provided by The Hollywood Reporter.

Horizons at Venice typically focuses on contemporary cinema styles and filmmakers seeking to expand mainstream boundaries. Within that setting, the inclusion of a journalist’s directorial debut is expected to attract attention from festival-goers and industry professionals looking for crossover projects that translate real-world reporting expertise into dramatic storytelling.

The Hollywood Reporter did not include distribution or release-plan details in the material provided for this article. It also did not specify additional casting, production credits, or a full premiere schedule beyond the assignment to the Horizons section, so those items are not repeated here.

With the Venice premiere approaching, the next publicly significant step for Moolah will be its screening in the festival’s Horizons lineup, followed by any subsequent announcements tied to awards consideration and potential post-festival distribution. Additional information is likely to emerge through festival programming materials and follow-up reporting after the screenings begin.