Three Italian films in running for Venice Golden Lion

(ANSA) - Rome, July 28 - Three Italian films will be gunning for the main Golden Lion award at the 73rd Venice Film Festival, which runs from August 31 to September 10, organizers announced at a press conference in Rome on Thursday. They are Roan Johnson's Piuma (Feather), Giuseppe Piccioni's Questi Giorni (These Days), and Spira Mirabilis, a documentary by Massimo D'Anolfi and Martina Parenti. Another contender for the top prize at the world's oldest film festival is La La Land, written and directed by Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) and starring Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, John Legend and J. K. Simmons (supporting actor Oscar winner for Whiplash).
    That movie will open the festival, directed by Alberto Barbera and organised by the Venice Biennale under Paolo Baratta, on August 31. Other Golden Lion hopefuls include Wim Wenders' Les Beaux Jours D'Aranjuez, Francois Ozon's Frantz, Emir Kustica's On the Milky Road and Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals starring Jake Gyllenhaal.