Venice Film Festival kicks off with Paolo Sorrentino's 'La Grazia'

The Venice Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday with the return of Hollywood royalty to Italy's swanky movie showcase, where 21 films from around the globe will vie for the prestigious Golden Lion award. Julia Roberts and George Clooney are the biggest names expected at the 82nd edition of the world's longest-running festival, with a cavalcade of respected film directors, from Kathryn Bigelow and Guillermo del Toro to Jim Jarmusch, all due to arrive on the sandy Lido across the Venice lagoon. Alongside the stars and glitzy atmosphere are films that promise to provoke debate, such as the Gaza film "The Voice of Hind Rajab" from two-time Oscar nominee Kaouther Ben Hania.

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Before the start of the festival, a group of Italian film professionals called on organisers not to remain silent on the Gaza war, and a protest on the Lido is scheduled for Saturday.

The festival's artistic director, Alberto Barbera, told AFP he was seeing "a return to reality" from filmmakers.

Directors today are "reflecting on the major problems that afflict us daily on a global level, from wars to the return of nuclear anxiety, obviously the occupation of Gaza and Palestine but also the many dictatorships resurging throughout the world", Barbera said, speaking from the red carpet. "The film festival is obviously not closed in a bubble... it's open to considering everything happening around us." The smorgasbord of films opens Wednesday with the premiere of "La Grazia", a drama from Paolo Sorrentino, best known outside Italy for 2013's "The Great Beauty", and again starring his frequent collaborator, actor Toni Servillo.

During the opening ceremony, Francis Ford Coppola will present German daredevil director Werner Herzog ("Grizzly Man", "Fitzcarraldo") with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement