VENICE'S BEST-DRESSED GUESTS

Cate Blanchett leads stars pulling out all the stops for one of the most glamorous film festivals of the year

- LAURA BENJAMIN

The Venice Film Festival may be organised around movies, but it's the red carpet displays from the world's most glamorous stars that garner most of the attention.

And that was the case last week, with celebrities including Cate Blanchett, Julia Roberts, Colman Domingo and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley showing their fashion flair while posing for photographers on the city's historic Lido.

Elegant in navy at the start of the festival's second week, Amanda Seyfried won praise for her elegant strapless full-length Prada couture gown, which boasted a long red bow on the front.

The Mamma Mia! star flew into the Italian city to attend the world premiere of her film, The Testament of Ann Lee, and was reduced to tears when the historical musical drama earned a 15-minute standing ovation.

DIVING IN DEEP

"This did feel like an opportunity where there were just no tethers to anything," she said afterwards. "There's so much freedom, and the only threat is to not use that freedom to your advantage as an artist, to go as deep as you can go to make the craziest sounds."

Demonstrating that Amanda's navy dress was very much part of a trend, Cate modelled the same hue with her Maison Margiela creation, which boasted an eye-catching feather-trimmed skirt, at the gala screening of her comedy drama Father Mother Sister Brother.