Venice sets stage for star power and big premieres

VENICE:

The world's oldest film festival lifts its curtain this Wednesday (tomorrow), welcoming Hollywood royalty Julia Roberts and George Clooney to the red carpet as the Venice Film Festival launches its 82nd edition on the sandy Lido.

Arriving by water taxi in true Venetian fashion, a parade of A-listers - from Jude Law to Emma Stone - is set to electrify the opening days, drawing crowds of fans eager for a glimpse of their favourite stars.

The festival, a cornerstone of the international film circuit, offers a rich blend of cinema this year: sprawling blockbusters, auteur-driven art films, and hard-hitting documentaries. Among the acclaimed directors returning to Venice are Werner Herzog, Jim Jarmusch, Kathryn Bigelow, Gus Van Sant, and South Korea's Park Chan-wook, marking his first appearance at the festival in two decades.

One of the splashiest entries is Benny Safdie's The Smashing Machine, in which Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson portrays an ageing wrestler in a gritty drama co-starring Emily Blunt.

Roberts, making her Venice debut, stars in Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt, a drama revolving around a sexual assault case at an elite American university. The film screens out of competition.

Clooney, meanwhile, returns to the festival with Jay Kelly, a Netflix-backed comedy directed by Noah Baumbach. Clooney plays a beloved actor confronting an identity crisis, with Adam Sandler as his manager.

Other much-anticipated titles include Olivier Assayas's The Wizard of the Kremlin, with Jude Law portraying a young Vladimir Putin; Guillermo del Toro's lavish reimagining of Frankenstein, starring Oscar Isaac; Yorgos Lanthimos's Bugonia, a reunion with Emma Stone following their Oscar-winning collaboration Poor Things; and Kathryn Bigelow's A House of Dynamite, a political thriller starring Idris Elba.

Also competing is Jim Jarmusch with Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, a melancholic comedy led by Cate Blanchett and Adam Driver. Italy's Gianfranco Rosi contributes Sotto le Nuvole (Below the Clouds), a black-and-white meditation on Naples.

Beyond the main competition, several high-profile documentaries will screen out of competition. Sofia Coppola presents an intimate portrait of her long-time friend, designer Marc Jacobs; Laura Poitras turns her lens on investigative journalist Seymour Hersh; and British filmmakers Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth profile the late singer Marianne Faithfull.

Audiences can also expect Herzog's Ghost Elephants, about a mythical herd in Angola, and Shu Qi's Nuhai (Girl), a Taiwanese generational drama marking her directorial debut.

While the festival briefly touches on geopolitics with Kaouther Ben Hania's The Voice of Hind Rajab, which explores the human toll of the Gaza conflict, Venice's main focus remains firmly on the art of cinema.

Golden Lion

The Golden Lion, Venice's top prize, will be awarded on September 6. This year's jury is led by Alexander Payne, the two-time Oscar-winning director of Sideways. Twenty-one films are in contention, including works from Assayas, Bigelow, del Toro, Lanthimos, and Sorrentino.

Venice regular Paolo Sorrentino opens the festival with La Grazia, a love story set in Italy and starring his frequent collaborator Toni Servillo. Meanwhile, French director Francois Ozon adapts Albert Camus's The Stranger, and Gus Van Sant returns with Dead Man's Wire, based on a real-life hostage crisis.

Over the years, Venice has cemented itself as an Oscar launchpad. Films like Nomadland, Joker, and Poor Things all began their journeys here before conquering Hollywood's biggest stage. Streaming giants Netflix and Amazon, too, increasingly rely on Venice for their worldwide premieres.

This year, Netflix fields three heavyweight contenders - Frankenstein, A House of Dynamite, and Jay Kelly - underscoring the platform's ambition to finally clinch an Academy Award for Best Picture.

The 82nd edition of the Venice Film Festival promises glamour, debate, and fierce competition, blending the world's most celebrated talent with bold new voices - all under the spell of cinema's most romantic setting.