Venice, the film on Putin and a shower of stars on the Lido. Five Italians in the race

The rumours have been confirmed: the 82nd edition of the Venice Film Festival, from 27 August to 6 September on the Lido under the artistic direction of Alberto Barbera, will feature five out of 23 Italian films in competition. In addition to the already announced La grazia by Paolo Sorrentino that will open the festival, there will be Elisa by Leonardo Di Costanzo with Barbara Ronchi and Valeria Golino, Duse by Pietro Marcello with Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, the documentary, Un film fatto per bene, by Franco Maresco and Sotto le nuvole by Gianfranco Rosi. They will be judged by a jury chaired by Alexander Payne. The Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement will be for Kim Novak and Werner Herzog.

But also returning are great international masters who have presented true masterpieces on the Lido. There is Yorgos Lanthimos who brought The Favourite here, Guillermo Del Toro with The Shape of Water, both very successful films. Del Toro will present Frankestein with Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz and Lathimos Bugonia with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. There is much curiosity for the super-experimental Park Chan-wook, the playful and at times poetic Jim Jarmusch with Father, mother, sister, brother with Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett and the indecipherable François Ozon with L'étranger with Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Mardere. Finally, Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow with House of Dynamite with Idris Elba.

There is much anticipation for Olivier Assayas' The Wizard of the Kremlin starring Paul Dano, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander, Tom Sturridge, Jeffrey Wright. Jude law seems to promise a very close resemblance to the Russian leader. Finally, Naoah Baumbach will bring Jay Kelly with George Clooney, Laura Dern, our own Alba Rohrwacher, and Greta Gerwig, busy directing the The Chronicles of Narnia for Netflix.

In the Out of Competition section, Luca Guadagnino with After the hunt starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, Gus Van Sant, Julian Schnabel and Antonio Capuano with L'isola di Andrea. The performers are Teresa Saponangelo, Vinicio Marchioni. While in the Non Fiction section there will be documentaries by Herzog, Lucrecia Martel, Laura Poitras, Sofia Coppola and then Roberto Andò with Ferdinando Scianna - Il fotografo dell'ombra. The Horizons section, for now, is dominated by the presence of Noomi Rapace in the role of Mother Teresa.

But above all there is the avant-garde section dedicated to television series, in which Portobello by Marco Bellocchio on Enzo Tortora and Il Mostro by Stefano Sollima with the first four episodes will be presented. Because as Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, president of the Venice Biennale, emphasised, 'This is an exhibition, not a festival.... We have committed ourselves to a specific area to lead us towards a hope: that of an absolutely bluer sky'.