*

Twenty-one films to compete for Golden Lion prize

*

Venice fires starting gun on awards season

*

Festival mixes big-dollar productions with art-house fare

By Crispian Balmer

July 22 (Reuters) - Hollywood stars, Oscar-winning

directors, Asian heavyweights and European auteurs will vie for

top honours at this year's stellar Venice Film Festival, all

looking to make a splash at the start of the awards season.

Running from August 27 to September 6, the 82nd edition of

the world's oldest film festival will showcase a rich array of

movies that spans psychological thrillers, art-house dramas,

genre-bending experiments, documentaries, and buzzy

studio-backed productions.

Among the leading A-listers expected to walk the Venice

Lido's red carpet are Julia Roberts, Emma Stone, George Clooney,

Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Andrew Garfield, Oscar Isaac, Cate

Blanchett and Amanda Seyfried.

NETFLIX RETURNS

A who's-who of global directors will also be premiering

their latest pictures at the 11-day event, including U.S.

filmmakers Kathryn Bigelow, Jim Jarmusch, Noah Baumbach and

Benny Safdie, alongside top Europeans Yorgos Lanthimos, Paolo

Sorrentino, and Laszlo Nemes, and Asia's Park Chan-wook and Shu

Qi.

Netflix ( NFLX ), which skipped Venice last year, returns in full

force in 2025 with a trio of headline-grabbing titles, including

Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein", a new take on the classic

horror tale starring Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth.

Baumbach's comedy-drama "Jay Kelly", starring Clooney, Adam

Sandler and Laura Dern, is also in the main competition and on

the Netflix ( NFLX ) slate, alongside the geopolitical thriller "A House

of Dynamite", with Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson, and directed

by Bigelow, who won an Oscar in 2010 for "The Hurt Locker".

Venice fires the starting gun for the awards season, with

films premiering on the Lido in the last four years collecting

more than 90 Oscar nominations and winning almost 20, making it

the place to be seen for actors, producers and directors alike.

In the past nine editions of the Oscars, the award for Best

Actress or Best Actor has gone eight times to the protagonists

of films first seen in Venice, including Stone for her role in

"Poor Things" in 2024.

FIGHTERS AND FAMILIES

Stone returns to Venice this year, teaming up again with

"Poor Things" director Lanthimos in an offbeat satire,

"Bugonia".

The indie icon of U.S. cinema, Jim Jarmusch, will be showing

his "Father Mother Sister Brother", a three-part tale exploring

fractured families with a cast that includes Blanchett, Vicky

Krieps, Adam Driver and Tom Waits.

Another U.S. film getting its first outing at Venice is the

MMA fighter biopic "The Smashing Machine", starring Johnson and

Blunt, and directed by Benny Safdie.

A very different biopic is "The Testament of Ann Lee" - a

musical take on the life of the radical 18th-century Shaker

leader, which stars Seyfried and is directed by Norway's Mona

Fastvold.

European auteurs are well-represented, with Paolo

Sorrentino's "La Grazia", starring Toni Servillo, selected as

the festival's opening film, while Hungary's Nemes presents the

family drama "Orphan" and France's Francois Ozon showcases his

retelling of Albert Camus' celebrated novel "The Stranger".

Another French director, Olivier Assayas, will premiere "The

Wizard of the Kremlin" -- a political thriller about the rise of

Vladimir Putin, starring Paul Dano and Alicia Vikander, with

Jude Law playing the Russian leader.

TRAGIC STORY OF PALESTINIAN GIRL

One film that looks certain to raise emotions is Kaouther

Ben Hania's "The Voice of Hind Rajab", which uses original

emergency service recordings to tell the story of a 5-year-old

Palestinian girl who was killed in Gaza in 2024 after being

trapped for hours in a vehicle targeted by Israeli forces.

"I think it is one of the films that will make the greatest

impression, and hopefully (won't be) controversial," said the

festival's artistic director, Alberto Barbera, his voice

trembling as he recalled the movie.

Among the battery of films being shown out of competition is

Luca Guadagnino's MeToo-themed psychological drama "After The

Hunt", starring Ayo Edebiri, Garfield and Julia Roberts, who

will be making her red carpet debut at Venice, Barbera said.

The jury for the main competition will be chaired by U.S.

director Alexander Payne. He will be joined by fellow directors

Stephane Brize, Maura Delpero, Cristian Mungiu, Mohammad

Rasoulof, and the actresses Fernanda Torres and Zhao Tao.