Four leading Italian filmmakers
will be running for a Golden Lion at the 72nd Venice Film
Festival in September.
The festival, which runs September 2-12, will be debuting a
star-studded lineup also including a significant selection of US
titles and international movies.
This year's edition was presented on Wednesday by Paolo
Baratta and Alberto Barbera, respectively the president and
artistic director of the Biennale.
Organizers of the world's oldest film festival revealed
that in competition are four Italian films, including Marco
Bellocchio's ''Sangue del Mio Sangue'' (My Own Blood), Giuseppe
Gaudino's ''Per Amor Vostro'' (For Your Love), Luca Guadagnino's
''A Bigger Splash''and debutant Piero Messina's ''L'Attesa''
(The Wait).
Guadagnino's movie features an international cast starring
Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson.
''The program is very varied,'' Barbera said.
The four Italian movies, more than Italy's average lineup,
''represent a strong and positive sign for Italian cinema,
although we should be careful not to harbor illusions'', Barbera
also said.
''The fact that we had three major films running in Cannes
and now four in Venice doesn't mean that Italian cinema is in
excellent health,'' he added.
Nevertheless, Italy will also have an additional five
films in Venice, both in the Horizons category and out of
competition.
Movies not running for an award include ''Non Essere
Cattivo'' (Don't Be Bad) by the late Claudio Caligari; a
documentary by Franco Maresco, ''Gli Uomini di Questa Città Io
Non li Conosco'' (I Don't Know men from this City) and Ginfranco
Pannone's ''L'esercito Più Piccolo del Mondo'' (The Smallest
Army in the World).
In competition for the Horizons category are Alberto
Caviglia's ''Pecore in Erba'' (Budding Sheep) and Renato De
Maria's ''Italian Gangsters''.
Overall, in competition are 21 films, a larger selection
than usual, featuring among others Tom Hopper's ''The Danish
Girl'' with Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne and Laurie
Anderson's return to directing with ''Heart of a Dog'' on
husband Lou Reed.
Other films in competition include Duke Johnson and Oscar
winner Charlie Kaufman's animated movie ''Anomalisa'' and Drake
Doremus' love story ''Equals'' with Kristen Stewart, Jacki
Weaver and Guy Pearce.
Also running for an award from South America are Argentine
director Pablo Trapero's ''El Clan'' and Venezuelan filmmaker
Lorenzo Vigas' ''Desde Allà''.
Baltasar Kormakur's disaster epic ''Everest,'' based on a
1996 true-life story starring Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhall,
Keira Knightley and Robin Wright, will open the festival out of
competition.
Another hotly anticipated release in an out-of-competition
spot is Scott Cooper's ''Black Mass'' with Johnny Depp, Peter
Sarsgaard, Kevin Bacon, Dakota Johnson e Benedict Cumberbatch.
Martin Scorsese's comedic short film ''The Audition'', a
promotional feature for Melco-Crown's movie-themed casinos
starring Robert De Niro, Leonardo Di Caprio and Brad Pitt, will
screen in Venice out of competition.
Though this year's edition of the festival debuts a
high-profile selection including a number of Hollywood's top
names ''it is a coincidence that there will be more stars on the
red carpet'', Barbera said.
The festival, noted its artistic director, doesn't try ''to
go against the market nor rest on its laurels'' but makes
quality choices.
And this 72nd edition will include new events such as
master classes for screen writers and filmmakers in the gardens
of the casino as well as debates with leading Italian filmmakers
Giuseppe Tornatore and Gianni Amelio and singer and song writer
Vasco Rossi.
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