Luca Guadagnino’s latest film, After the Hunt, starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield, highlights themes and characters that speak to the #MeToo movement. In the opening credits, the Challengers director uses opening credits inspired by Woody Allen and goes in-depth on why he chose to do that.

“The crass answer would be, why not?” Guadagnino answered IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio. He continued, “When I started thinking about this movie with my collaborators in front of the camera and behind the camera — Malik Hassan Sayeed, director of photography, Stefano Baisi on production design and Giulia Piersanti [on costume design] — we couldn’t stop thinking of [Woody Allen films] Crimes and Misdemeanors, Another Woman or even Hannah and Her Sisters. And there was an infrastructure to the story that felt very linked to the great oeuvre of Woody Allen between 1985 and 1991.”

Guadagnino said he messed around with the style of credits “a few times before this” in his earlier projects. But, because After the Hunt features plot points about assault and misconduct, it made sense considering Allen’s history of sexual assault and misconduct allegations from his adopted daughter.

“I felt it was also sort [of] an interesting nod to thinking of an artist who has been, in a way, facing some sort of problems about his being, and what is our responsibility in looking at the work of an artist that we love, like Woody Allen,” Guadagnino continued. “And, by the way, it’s a classic, that kind of font. I just want to conclude it’s such a classic that it goes beyond Woody Allen.”

After the Hunt is a psychological drama about a college professor, Alma Imhoff, played by Roberts, who is stuck between a personal and professional crossroads when her star student, Maggie, played by Edebiri, accuses her colleague Hank, played by Garfield, of assault. As time goes on, a dark secret from Alma’s past threatens to be discovered. Guadagnino directed from a script penned by Nora Garrett.

Guadagnino said he was “very much impressed” by Garrett’s script when he received it, and it came to him at the perfect time because he was having the same sort of conversations with himself about power. “What do we want when we are looking for power? Why do we want power? Why do we fight over getting power in our hands and taking it off other people’s hands?”

He said another reason he was drawn to the material is how it addresses truth. “Everyone has their own truths. It’s not that one truth is more important than the other. It’s how we see the clash of truths and what is the boundary of these truths together.”

After the Hunt had its world premiere on Friday, inside Sala Grande. Amazon MGM Studios will release the film on Oct. 17. The 82nd Venice Film Festival runs from Aug. 27-Sept. 6.