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Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars are heading to the Italian city of Venice, where the 83rd Venice Film Festival gets underway on Wednesday.

Here’s a look at everything you need to know about the festival, its Oscar prospects and its guests.

Venice Film Festival banks on star power

It is one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals, second only to Cannes, and technically the oldest. Venice is a place where you can expect to see some of cinema’s biggest stars, watch some of the best films from international cinema, and often get an early indication of how the Oscar race may unfold.

The film festival was founded in 1932 by the Venice Biennale as a non-competitive event, screening films including Grand Hotel and It Happened One Night.

In 1935, it was decided that the festival would become an annual event. Suspicions that the festival had succumbed to fascist influence following the 1938 edition helped prompt the creation of the Cannes Film Festival as an alternative.

The Golden Lion award as we know it today was not introduced until 1949.

Rashomon won the top prize in 1951, while other winners throughout the festival’s history include Belle de jour in 1967, Au revoir les enfants in 1987, Brokeback Mountain in 2005, Somewhere in 2010, Poor Things in 2023 and, last year, Father Mother Sister Brother.

What’s happening this year

The festival begins Wednesday and runs through Sept. 12, when the award winners will be announced.

The opening-night film is Danny Boyle’s Ink, an adaptation of the acclaimed play about the early years of Rupert Murdoch’s career, with Murdoch played by Guy Pearce, and his acquisition of the daily newspaper The Sun.

The film also stars Jack O’Connell and Claire Foy.

George Clooney is a near-annual presence in Venice. This time, he will attend the festival to receive a lifetime achievement award.

He is also a producer of the new film Furies.

Other stars expected to attend include Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis, Kate and Rooney Mara, Robert Pattinson, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Pamela Anderson, Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich, Louis Garrel, Cho Yeo-jeong and Ellen Burstyn, who will also receive a lifetime achievement award.

Major films and documentaries draw attention

In terms of awards prospects, perhaps the most eagerly anticipated film is Martin McDonagh’s black comedy Wild Horse Nine, in which Rockwell and Malkovich play a pair of CIA agents in the run-up to the 1973 Chilean coup.

McDonagh’s previous films The Banshees of Inisherin and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri premiered in Venice and later received best picture nominations.

Also highly anticipated are Pattinson playing To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen in Primetime; Cruz and Bardem starring together in Florian Zeller’s psychological drama Bunker; the Mara sisters playing twins in Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard; and Lee Chang-dong’s first film in eight years, Possible Love.

In the documentary category, Alex Gibney presents Musk, a nearly four-hour investigation into the world’s richest man, while Julia Loktev continues her expansive portrait of independent Russian journalists in My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile.

Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger tells the story of the Gallagher brothers’ band’s 2025 reunion tour.

Controversies are brewing

Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s DAU, inspired by the lives of Soviet physicists who worked on the atomic bomb, has become the focus of heated debate. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, Culture Ministry and Ukrainian Embassy in Italy questioned its inclusion in the festival’s competition, calling it “a project connected to the Russian state and its networks of influence.”

Festival director Alberto Barbera defended the decision, writing in a statement that it “is not a Russian film. It is not pro-Putin propaganda. It is a film that condemns totalitarian regimes and their interference in citizens’ lives in order to restrict their freedom.”

Khrzhanovsky also posted a lengthy response on Facebook, arguing that the film “should not be prejudged on the basis of false associations, distorted chronology or assumptions that contradict the documented history of the project. I opposed and continue to oppose Russia’s war against Ukraine and the political system that made this war possible.”

Earlier this year, geopolitical tensions also spilled over into the Venice Art Biennale when the jury resigned in protest over the participation of Russia and Israel.

The Venice4Palestine group, which staged a large-scale protest during last year’s festival, called for “the suspension of all agreements with entities and institutions connected to the Israeli government,” although it did not identify specific films. It also asked for the Palestinian flag to be flown throughout the festival. The official program includes two Palestinian films: Ahmed Hassouna’s Al Mowaten Osama and Muayad Alayan’s Hiwar ma’ albahr.

As for feature films, To Catch a Predator host Hansen may have concerns about how he is portrayed in Primetime, which is based on a 2007 Esquire article. He was not involved in making the film, which was written by Ajon Singh and directed by Lance Oppenheim.

In addition, only one of the 21 films competing for the Golden Lion was directed by a woman: May el Toukhy’s Woman Unknown. The last time only one woman competed, in 2018, the festival pledged that by 2020 at least half of the films in competition would be directed by women. That has still not happened.

Oscar bellwethers

When people think of Venice, they usually picture famous landmarks such as the Rialto Bridge and St. Mark’s Square. The festival takes place elsewhere — on the nearly 11-kilometer-long barrier island known as the Lido, about a 20-minute water-taxi ride away.

In the late 19th century, the Lido developed into a seaside resort and a favorite destination of European aristocrats. The Venice Lido was the principal setting of Thomas Mann’s novella Death in Venice and Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film adaptation.

Barbera believes Venice established its place in the Oscar race in 2013, when Gravity premiered there before winning seven Academy Awards the following March, turning Venice into a place from which a successful awards campaign could be launched.

That position has only strengthened as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has become more international. Since 2014, four best picture winners have premiered at the festival: Birdman, Spotlight, The Shape of Water and Nomadland.

Last year, it screened two best picture nominees, Frankenstein and Bugonia.

Actor and director Maggie Gyllenhaal heads the Venice Film Festival’s main jury, which also includes Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, English composer Daniel Blumberg, French director Xavier Giannoli, Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat and Hong Kong director Johnnie To.

The award winners will be announced on Sept. 12.