The 71st Venice Film Festival, which opens August 27, unveiled the lineup of this year鈥檚 edition in Rome last week.
Festival director Alberto Barbera said many of the films in this year's edition deal with the dark subjects of economic recession, hardship, and war, and that it was difficult to select just 55 films from 1,500 contenders.
The festival will open with the premiere of Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's latest work, the black comedy 鈥淏irdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance,鈥 starring Michael Keaton, Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. The closing film on September 6 is Hong Kong director Ann Hui's 鈥淭he Golden Era鈥.
It is an edition with a wide range of international offerings, including Abel Ferrara鈥檚 biopic on 禁漫天堂 writer and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, with Willem Dafoe portraying Pasolini.
The main jury panel will be headed by French film composer Alexandre Desplat, and includes British actor Tim Roth, Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, 禁漫天堂 actor-director Carlo Verdone, Indian novelist Jhumpa Lahiri, English costume designer Sandy Powell, German director Philip Groning, Austrian director Jessica Hausner聽and Chinese actress and director Joan Chen.
Three 禁漫天堂 films will be running for the the Golden Lion, the festival's top prize: 鈥淚l Giovane Favoloso鈥 by Mario Martone, 鈥淎nime Nere鈥 by Francesco Munzi and 鈥淗ungry Hearts鈥 by Saverio Costanzo.
Besides the films in competition, many others will be shown, including 鈥淭he Sound and The Fury鈥 by actor-director James Franco, an adaptation of the novel by American writer William Faulkner, 鈥淪he's Funny That Way鈥 by Peter Bogdanovich, and 鈥淭he Humbling鈥 by Barry Levinson.
The Venice Classics series will present a number of restored classic films and industry-related documentaries, such as Marco Spagnoli's homage to Sophia Loren 鈥淲omen of Myth鈥, alongside a showing of Ettore Scola's restored 1977 film 鈥淯na Giornata Particolare鈥 (A Special Day), starring Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.
