THE 72nd Venice Film Festival, to be held Sept. 2-12, is squeezed between the auteurist prestige of Cannes in May and that colossal awards curtain-raiser provided by Toronto in September. But it can still regularly serve up stars and directorial heavy-hitters, as it has proved this year.

    The Venice Film Festival, the world’s oldest major film festival in Italy, will once again screen films from new and established directors, with 55 new films set for this year’s 72nd edition.

    The festival director Alberto Barbera and president Paolo Baratta unveiled this year’s star-studded lineup Wednesday morning at the Westin Excelsior Rome hotel. It includes much-buzzed-about American films, a slew of Italian talent and various voices from world cinema.

    “The program is very varied,” said Barbera. “The lineup goes from small films, which are almost experimental, to documentaries and great auteur films as well as great films which seek to innovate the forms used in contemporary cinema. All in all, there’s a bit of everything.”

    In the competition section, a number of U.S. titles are part of the lineup, which Barbara called one of the most diverse in festival. Among U.S. directors, the competition features Laurie Anderson’s return to directing with “Heart of a Dog,” a film about loss, Cary Fukunaga’s “Beasts of No Nation,” starring Idris Elba as a warlord in the film about child soldiers in Africa, which Netflix bought global rights to for a reported US$12 million.

    Also in the competition, Duke Johnson and Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman’s animated film “Anomalisa,” starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tom Noonan, is not for kids. Centered around the crisis of the middle-aged man, the film was partially funded by Kickstarter.

    Tom Hooper’s 1920s drama “The Danish Girl” is also among the awards season contenders in the Venice competition. It stars Eddie Redmayne as Lili Elbe, one of the first people to undergo a sex change after his wife Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander) began painting him as a woman.

    Drake Doremus’ futurisitic love story “Equals,” starring Kristen Stewart, Jacki Weaver and Guy Pearce, will also compete for Venice’s Golden Lion award as will Canadian director Atom Egoyan’s thriller “Rembember,” starring Dean Norris and Christopher Plummer.

    Marco Bellocchio comes to Venice with “Sangue Del Mio Sangue,” Piero Messina with “L’attesa,” Giuseppe Gaudino with “Per Amor Vostro,” and Luca Guadagnino with “A Bigger Splash” starring Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson.

    Other films in competition include Chinese director Zhao Liang’s documentary “Behemoth,” Argentine director Pablo Trapero’s “The Clan,” and Australian director Sue Brooks’ “Looking for Grace.”

    Chinese director Hu Guan’s big production “Mr. Six” will close the festival in an out-of-competition screening. It focuses on the conflict between the values of various time periods in China.

    As previously announced, Baltasar Kormakur’s disaster epic “Everest” from Universal will open the festival out of competition. Shot at Rome’s Cinecitta Studios, “Everest” stars Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal, Keira Knightley and Robin Wright in the true-life story of climbers battling for their lives after a snow storm ravages the planet’s highest mountain.

    Screening out of competition, Scott Cooper’s “Black Mass” from Warner Bros. stars Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger in the true-life story of the infamous criminal who turned mafia informant. The film also stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon and Dakota Johnson.

    Another hotly anticipated fall release in an out-of-competition spot, Tom McCarthy’s “Spotlight” is about the true story of how the Boston Globe revealed a massive cover-up of the child molestation scandal within the local Catholic archdiocese. It stars Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Michael Keaton.

    Daniel Alfredson’s “Go With Me,” starring Anthony Hopkins, Ray Liotta and Julia Stiles, is also among the out-of-competition fiction lineup. Documentaries including Amy Berg’s “Janis” and Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow’s “De Palma” will also screen there.

    Martin Scorsese’s comedic short film “The Audition,” a promotional short for Melco-Crown’s movie-themed resort and casino, starring Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, will also screen out of competition.

    The Horizons section represents films from Israel, Mexico, Brazil, France, Greece, Denmark, Iran and Indonesia to name a few. American director Dito Montiel will screen “Man Down,” starring Shia LaBeouf, Kate Mara and Gary Oldman.

    Alfonso Cuaron chairs the Venice festival’s international jury alongside Elizabeth Banks, Diane Kruger, Pawel Pawlikowski, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Francesco Munzi, Lynne Ramsay, Emmanuel Carre and Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

    Bernard Tavernier will receive a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award.(SD-Agencies)