82nd edition of Venice International Film Festival is set to open on Aug.27

The Venice Film Festival offers an embarrassment of auteur riches this year.

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The 82nd edition, which kicks off on Wednesday, has films from Guillermo del Toro, Kathryn Bigelow, Park Chan-wook, Yorgos Lanthimos, Sofia Coppola, Jim Jarmusch, Gus Van Sant and Luca Guadagnino, to name a few. Even Charlie Kaufman has a short film "How to Shoot a Ghost”. Depending on how they play, some in the lineup will surely be part of the Oscar conversation in the new year, as several filmmakers this year can attest from experience. In 2017, del Toro launched “The Shape of Water” at Venice, where its Golden Lion win was the first of many that awards season, culminating with a best picture and best director prize at the Academy Awards. In 2023, Lanthimos also had a charmed Venice debut for “Poor Things,” another Golden Lion winner that would get Emma Stone a best actress Oscar.

Here's a preview of films to get excited about this year. It's always an event when Lanthimos teams up with Stone. Described as a science-fiction black comedy and a remake of a South Korean film, “Bugonia” stars Jesse Plemons as a conspiracy-obsessed man who (along with Aidan Delbis) kidnaps Stone's character, the CEO of a pharmaceutical group, because they believe she’s an alien. Focus Features plans a late October theatrical release.

Noah Baumbach takes on his own industry, and the idea that coming-of-age stories are only for the young, in “Jay Kelly,” casting George Clooney as a movie star on an introspective (and comedic) journey through Europe with his manager Ron (Adam Sandler). Baumbach cowrote the script with Emily Mortimer, who is part of the large ensemble cast including Laura Dern, Billy Crudup and Greta Gerwig. In theaters in November and on Netflix in December.