Kick-off for the Venice Film Festival and the Jury of Julianne Moore

Julianne Moore and her jury will get down to business: stars and moviegoers arrive on the Lido on Wednesday August 31 for the start of the 79^e Venice Film Festival, the oldest film festival that has become a springboard for the Oscars. Guest of Honor, Catherine Deneuve is expected on the red carpet to receive, at 78, an honorary Golden Lion for her entire career. The French star had already received the Volpi cup for best actress for Place Vendôme of Nicole Garcia in 1998.

Change of generation in the evening with New Yorker Noah Baumbach, who opens the competition with the official screening of White Noiseadapted from one of the writer’s seminal novels Don DeLillo. The 52-year-old filmmaker, author of Frances Ha, The Meyerowitz Stories Where Marriage Story finds his favorite interpreters, his companion Greta Gerwig and Adam Driver. The selection of this opening film is a new mark of recognition for the online video giant netflixwhich produced it, and which is lining up no less than four films and a series on the lagoon this year.

In total, 23 feature films (including eight signed by female directors) are in competition for the Lion d’Or, which is due to be awarded on September 10. Twenty years after winning the interpretation prize there for far from paradiseshe is the actress Julianne Moore who is presiding over the jury in Venice this year. She must find the other members of the jury on Wednesday August 31, including Audrey Diwanthe French director who won the Golden Lion last year, the Iranian Leila Hatami (seen in A separation ofAsghar Farhadi) or the Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen.

Penélope Cruz, Timothée Chalamet and Isabelle Huppert

Among the highlights of the festival, the expected arrival of a cohort of Hollywood stars, always numerous to appreciate the sweetness of the lagoon. From Thursday 1^er september, Cate Blanchett should climb the stairs to Tar of Tidd Field, where she plays a brilliant conductor, before yielding the star the next day to Timothée Chalamet. The Franco-American, who won the applause meter on the red carpet last year for Dunes is back for Bones and Allthe new film by Luca Guadagninothe author of Call Me By Your Name . Venice also expects to see a parade Penelope Cruz for two films – a year after his Venetian coronation at Almodóvar -, Isabelle Huppertand hopes to see the British pop phenomenon land Harry Stylesstarring in his girlfriend’s film Olivia Wilde (Don’t Worry Darling).

One of the most anticipated stars at the turn is probably the Cuban actress From Bond toBlonde hair», the meteoric rise of Ana de Armas, the new Marilyn, noticed in James Bond girl last year and who takes up the challenge of interpreting Marilyn Monroe, sixty years after her death. This biopic, signed Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), promises to cause a sensation, with a feminist reinterpretation of the life of the cinema icon, based on the story of the same title, Blonde hair from the novelist Joyce Carol Oates.

Also eagerly awaited by moviegoers, the new films ofAlejandro González Iñarritu (the Revenant, birdman ), in the form of a return to basics in Mexico, Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Pi), or Joanna Hoggwith magnetic Tilda Swinton on the bill, or the Iranian Jafar Panahi and veterans Walter Hill and Paul Schrader. French authors are not to be outdone, Rebecca Zlotowski at Romain Gavraspassing by the actor passed to the realization Roschdy Zem. Not to mention the playwright Florian Zeller who, after the success of his companionship with Anthony Hopkins for The Father present The Sonanother adaptation of one of his plays, this time with Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern.

The opening and closing ceremonies are broadcast by Canal+, which became the exclusive partner of the Mostra after being replaced by France Televisions and Brut to Cannes film festivalhis backyard until then.