VENICE, Italy -- Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars are heading to Venice, Italy, for the 82nd edition of the Venice Film Festival, which kicks off on Wednesday.Here’s a rundown of everything you need to know about the festival, the Oscar buzz and who’s going.It’s one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, second only to Cannes, and technically the oldest.Venice is also a reliably starry affair, gathering some of the best films in international cinema and often factoring into the Oscars race.The film festival was established in 1932, then a non-competitive event, by the La Biennale di Venezia, hosting films like “Grand Hotel” and “It Happened One Night.” By 1935, they 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.The Golden Lion award as we know it today wouldn’t be introduced until 1949 (“Rashômon” won in 1951).Other winners throughout history include “Belle de jour” (1967), “Au revoir les enfants” (1987), “Brokeback Mountain” (2005), “Somewhere” (2010), “Poor Things” (2023) and, last year, “The Room Next Door.”The festival kicks off on Wednesday and runs through Sept.
6, when the awards will be announced.The opening night film is Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia.”Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Emma Stone, Dwayne Johnson, Adam Sandler and Idris Elba are among the stars expected to grace the red carpets this year.
It’ll be the first time at the festival for both Roberts, starring in the #MeToo-themed drama “After the Hunt,” and Johnson, who transformed for his role as MMA fighter Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine.”Other stars in the lineup include Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Jesse Plemons, Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri, Bill Skarsgård, Colman Domingo, Amanda Seyfried, Callum Turner and Jude Law.Lifetime ...