Innovation key in making the cut for 75th Venice film fest

THE Venice film festival will celebrate its 75th birthday this year with a star-packed lineup with directors like Kenneth Branagh, Brian De Palma, Ken Loach, Peter Greenaway and Ang Lee vying for its top prize.

US and British films dominate the programme of the world’s oldest movie contest, totalling 11 titles out of the 22 films — all world premieres — in the main competition.

“We wanted to show that there is an Anglo-Saxon cinema that is different from the mainstream one,” said the festival’s director, Marco Mueller.

“Our main criterion was originality, and we found that British and US films still manage to offer something new and dare more than others. What I find extraordinary is that the films in the lineup are incredibly innovative and yet full of stars,” he said.

Among the nine US productions hoping to win the coveted Golden Lion award are De Palma’s Redacted, Paul Haggis’s The Valley of Elah and Branagh’s Sleuth.

Joe Wright’s Atonement, based on Ian McEwan’s novel, will open the festival. Ang Lee, whose gay cowboy film Brokeback Mountain won Venice’s top prize in 2005, returns to Venice’s Lido with Lust, Caution.

British films in the main contest include Greenaway’s Nightwatching and Loach’s It’s a Free World. Three Italian movies from lesser-known, emerging filmmakers are also vying for the Golden Lion, as is France’s Eric Rohmer.

Outside the competition, Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream, Claude Chabrol’s La Fille Coupée en Deux and Takeshi Kitano’s Glory to the Filmmaker! are among the most eagerly awaited titles.

Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Richard Gere, Cate Blanchett, Vanessa Redgrave, Scarlett Johansson, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon are some of the celebrities who could hit the red carpet during the festival, which runs from August 29 to September 8 and will screen a total of 57 films.