VENICE, Italy (AP) \u2014 Some of Hollywood\u2019s biggest stars are heading to Venice, Italy, for the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival, which kicks off on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a rundown of everything you need to know about the festival, the Oscar buzz<\/a> and who\u2019s going.<\/p>\n The Venice Film Festival banks on star power<\/p>\n It\u2019s one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, second only to Cannes,<\/a> and technically the oldest. Venice is also a reliably starry affair, gathering some of the best films in international cinema, and it often factors into the Oscars race.<\/p>\n The film festival was established in 1932, then a non-competitive event, by the La Biennale di Venezia, hosting films like \u201cGrand Hotel\u201d and \u201cIt Happened One Night.\u201d By 1935, it decided to make it an annual event. Suspicions that the festival was succumbing to fascist influences actually led to the establishment of the Cannes Film Festival as an alternative after the 1938 edition.<\/p>\n The Golden Lion award as we know it today wouldn\u2019t be introduced until 1949. \u201cRash\u00f4mon\u201d won in 1951, and other winners throughout history include \u201cBelle de jour\u201d in 1967, \u201cAu revoir les enfants\u201d in 1987, \u201cBrokeback Mountain\u201d in 2005, \u201cSomewhere\u201d in 2010, \u201cPoor Things\u201d<\/a> in 2023 and, last year, \u201cFather Mother Sister Brother.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Venice kicks off the fall film festival season<\/p>\n The festival kicks off on Wednesday and runs through Sept. 12, when the awards will be announced. The opening night film is Danny Boyle\u2019s \u201cInk,\u201d<\/a> an adaptation of the acclaimed stage play about the early years of Rupert Murdoch \u2014 played by Guy Pearce \u2014 and his acquisition of the daily newspaper The Sun. Jack O\u2019Connell and Claire Foy also star.<\/p>\n Who\u2019s going this year<\/p>\n George Clooney is back to being a near-annual fixture. This time he\u2019ll be at the festival to pick up a lifetime achievement award. He\u2019s also a producer on \u201cFuries.\u201d Other stars expected include Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis, Rooney and Kate Mara, Robert Pattinson, Pen\u00e9lope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Pamela Anderson, Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich, Louis Garrel, Cho Yeo-jeong and Ellen Burstyn, who is also getting a lifetime achievement award.<\/p>\n Big films and docs draw attention<\/p>\n As far as awards are concerned, perhaps the most anticipated is Martin McDonagh\u2019s dark comedy \u201cWild Horse Nine,\u201d starring Rockwell and Malkovich as a pair of CIA agents before the 1973 Chilean coup. McDonagh\u2019s previous films \u201cThe Banshees of Inisherin\u201d and \u201cThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri\u201d premiered at Venice and went on to receive best picture nominations. There is also excitement about Pattinson playing \u201cTo Catch a Predator\u201d host Chris Hansen in \u201cPrimetime,\u201d Cruz and Bardem co-starring in Florian Zeller\u2019s psychological drama \u201cBunker,\u201d the Mara sisters playing twins in Werner Herzog\u2019s \u201cBucking Fastard\u201d and Lee Chang-dong\u2019s<\/a> first film in eight years, \u201cPossible Love.\u201d<\/p>\n In the documentary category, Alex Gibney is bringing \u201cMusk,\u201d his nearly four-hour investigation into the world\u2019s richest man, and Julia Loktev continues her sprawling portrait of independent Russian journalists in \u201cMy Undesirable Friends: Part II \u2014 Exile.\u201d \u201cOasis: Don\u2019t Look Back in Anger\u201d also follows the Gallagher brothers during their 2025 reunion tour.<\/p>\n Controversies are brewing<\/p>\n Ilya Khrzhanovsky\u2019s film \u201cDAU,\u201d inspired by the lives of the Soviet physicists working on the atomic bomb, has been at the center of some heated discourse. Ukraine\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture and the Embassy of Ukraine in Italy questioned its inclusion in the festival, where it\u2019s playing in competition, calling it a \u201cproject linked to the Russian state and its networks of influence.\u201d<\/p>\n Festival director Alberto Barbera defended its selection, writing in a statement that it \u201cis not a Russian film. It is not pro-Putin propaganda. It is a film that denounces totalitarian regimes and their intrusion into citizens\u2019 lives to restrict their freedom.\u201d <\/p>\n Khrzhanovsky also wrote a lengthy rebuttal on Facebook, writing that the movie \u201cshould not be prematurely judged on the basis of false associations, distorted chronology, or assumptions that contradict the documented history of the project. I have been and remain opposed to Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine and to the political system that made this war possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this year<\/a>, geopolitical tensions spilled over into the Venice Biennale contemporary art exhibition after the jury quit<\/a> in protest over the participation of Russia<\/a> and Israel.<\/p>\n The group Venice4Palestine, which last year hosted a large scale protest during the festival, asked that it \u201csuspend all agreements with entities and institutions linked to the Israeli government,\u201d although it did not specify any films. It also asked that the Palestinian flag be flown \u201cthroughout the festival.\u201d There are two Palestinian films in the official selection: \u201cAl Mowaten Osama\u201d by Ahmed Hassouna and \u201cHiwar ma\u2019 albahr\u201d by Muayad Alayan.<\/p>\n Among the narrative films, \u201cTo Catch a Predator\u201d host Hansen may be concerned about his portrayal in \u201cPrimetime,\u201d which is based on the 2007 Esquire article, \u201cTonight on Dateline, This Man Will Die.\u201d He was not involved in the making of the film, which was written by Ajon Singh and directed by Lance Oppenheim.<\/p>\n Also, out of 21 films in competition for the Golden Lion, only one was directed by a woman, May el-Toukhy\u2019s \u201cWoman Unknown.\u201d The last time the competition had only one woman, in 2018, the festival committed to have at least half of the films in competition be directed by women by 2020. It has yet to happen.<\/p>\n The festival holds court on an island<\/p>\n When people think of Venice, they usually think of landmarks like the Ponte di Rialto and the Piazza San Marco. The festival takes place elsewhere, on a nearly 7-mile (11-kilometer) barrier island called the Lido, which is about a 20-minute ferry, or vaporetto, ride away.<\/p>\n A military outpost in the 12th century, it transformed into a seaside resort, a favorite of European aristocrats, by the end of the 19th. The Venice Lido was the primary setting for Thomas Mann\u2019s novella \u201cDeath in Venice,\u201d and Luchino Visconti\u2019s 1971 film adaptation.<\/p>\n Venice plays into the Oscar race<\/p>\n Barbera thinks Venice\u2019s place in the Oscar race was solidified in 2013 when they hosted the premiere of \u201cGravity,\u201d which went on to win seven Oscars the following March, establishing Venice as a place to launch a campaign. It\u2019s only intensified as the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has gotten more international.<\/a> Since 2014, the festival has hosted four best picture winners \u2014 \u201cBirdman,\u201d \u201cSpotlight,\u201d \u201cThe Shape of Water\u201d and \u201cNomadland.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, it hosted two best picture nominees in \u201cFrankenstein\u201d and \u201cBugonia.\u201d<\/p>\n Celebrities live it up on the islands<\/p>\n On the Lido, the only five-star hotel is the Hotel Excelsior, which dates back to 1908. But there are many luxury hotels on the different islands that offer a bit more privacy, away from the frenzy of the festival and photographers.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most famous of the bunch is the Hotel Cipriani, on Giudecca, home of one of Clooney\u2019s favorite bars. Another favorite is the Gritti Palace, where everyone from Brad Pitt to Elizabeth Taylor has stayed. There is a St. Regis and the Aman Venice, where George and Amal Clooney were married. The historic Hotel Danieli has also recently reopened as a Four Seasons property after a major renovation.<\/p>\n Stars travel by boat<\/p>\n The scattered hotels are also the reason you see so many celebrities photographed on the Excelsior docks: They arrive to the festival, including press conferences and premieres, by private water taxi. Sometimes, they\u2019re transported a very short distance from the Excelsior to the red carpet in cars, generally from whichever car company is sponsoring that year. Unlike on the main island of Venice, motorized vehicles are allowed on the Lido, including buses and private cars. But many festivalgoers prefer to bike.<\/p>\n The jury gets the final say<\/p>\n Actor and filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal is presiding over the main competition jury, which includes Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, English composer Daniel Blumberg, French filmmaker Xavier Giannoli, Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat and Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To. The award winners will be announced on Sept. 12.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n