The 74th edition of the Venice international film festival opens in the lagoon city on Wednesday with a line-up of much anticipated movies and spectacular settings for the nighttime events. The programme running until September 9 interprets the present and near future, exploring new languages of cinema in a demonstration of vitality and hope despite the global crisis. On Friday Hollywood legends Robert Redford, 81, and Jane Fonda, 79, reunite to receive Golden Lions for career achievement before an out-of-competition showing of Our Souls at Night, directed by Ritesh Batra and starring the pair. The pack of long-awaited films is led by Mother!, a psychological thriller by Darren Aronofsky and starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem.
There is also anticipation for the premiere of the first two episodes of Suburra, the first Italian series produced by streaming-on-demand giant Netflix. Glamorous couples present at the festival will include Bardem and Penelope Cruz, George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin (and maybe also their twins?), Lawrence and Aronofsky, who became an item during filming of Mother!, and Paolo Virzì and Micaela Ramazzotti.
This year's festival also introduces a new competition section for films in virtual reality. The Shape of Water by Mexico's Guillermo Del Toro about the encounter between a dumb woman and a mysterious amphibian creature is rumoured to be among the favourites for the Golden Lion. The theme of migration also finds room in the programme with Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei's Human Flow documenting the living conditions of migrants and refugees all over the world and the new film by Andrea Segre, L'ordine delle cose, focusing on the relations between Italy and Libya. The line-up also includes around 30 Italian films, including four in the competition section. The animation film Gatta Cenerentola by Alessandro Rak and Cosimo Gomez's debut film Brutti e cattivi are among those generating the greatest interest. The jury is chaired by Annette Bening, while for the first time ever the opening and closing ceremonies will be hosted by a man, Italian actor Alessandro Borghi.
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