Four leading Italian filmmakers will be running for a Golden Lion at the 72nd Venice Film Festival in September.
The festival, which runs September 2-12, will be debuting a star-studded lineup also including a significant selection of US titles and international movies.
This year's edition was presented on Wednesday by Paolo Baratta and Alberto Barbera, respectively the president and artistic director of the Biennale.
Organizers of the world's oldest film festival revealed that in competition are four Italian films, including Marco Bellocchio's ''Sangue del Mio Sangue'' (My Own Blood), Giuseppe Gaudino's ''Per Amor Vostro'' (For Your Love), Luca Guadagnino's ''A Bigger Splash''and debutant Piero Messina's ''L'Attesa'' (The Wait).
Guadagnino's movie features an international cast starring Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson.
''The program is very varied,'' Barbera said.
The four Italian movies, more than Italy's average lineup, ''represent a strong and positive sign for Italian cinema, although we should be careful not to harbor illusions'', Barbera also said.
''The fact that we had three major films running in Cannes and now four in Venice doesn't mean that Italian cinema is in excellent health,'' he added.
Nevertheless, Italy will also have an additional five films in Venice, both in the Horizons category and out of competition.
Movies not running for an award include ''Non Essere Cattivo'' (Don't Be Bad) by the late Claudio Caligari; a documentary by Franco Maresco, ''Gli Uomini di Questa Città Io Non li Conosco'' (I Don't Know men from this City) and Ginfranco Pannone's ''L'esercito Più Piccolo del Mondo'' (The Smallest Army in the World).
In competition for the Horizons category are Alberto Caviglia's ''Pecore in Erba'' (Budding Sheep) and Renato De Maria's ''Italian Gangsters''.
Overall, in competition are 21 films, a larger selection than usual, featuring among others Tom Hopper's ''The Danish Girl'' with Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne and Laurie Anderson's return to directing with ''Heart of a Dog'' on husband Lou Reed.
Other films in competition include Duke Johnson and Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman's animated movie ''Anomalisa'' and Drake Doremus' love story ''Equals'' with Kristen Stewart, Jacki Weaver and Guy Pearce.
Also running for an award from South America are Argentine director Pablo Trapero's ''El Clan'' and Venezuelan filmmaker Lorenzo Vigas' ''Desde Allà''.
Baltasar Kormakur's disaster epic ''Everest,'' based on a 1996 true-life story starring Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhall, Keira Knightley and Robin Wright, will open the festival out of competition.
Another hotly anticipated release in an out-of-competition spot is Scott Cooper's ''Black Mass'' with Johnny Depp, Peter Sarsgaard, Kevin Bacon, Dakota Johnson e Benedict Cumberbatch.
Martin Scorsese's comedic short film ''The Audition'', a promotional feature for Melco-Crown's movie-themed casinos starring Robert De Niro, Leonardo Di Caprio and Brad Pitt, will screen in Venice out of competition.
Though this year's edition of the festival debuts a high-profile selection including a number of Hollywood's top names ''it is a coincidence that there will be more stars on the red carpet'', Barbera said.
The festival, noted its artistic director, doesn't try ''to go against the market nor rest on its laurels'' but makes quality choices.
And this 72nd edition will include new events such as master classes for screen writers and filmmakers in the gardens of the casino as well as debates with leading Italian filmmakers Giuseppe Tornatore and Gianni Amelio and singer and song writer Vasco Rossi.
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