21 films to vie for top honours in Venice

Rome - Venice Film Festival organizers unveiled Tuesday the 21 films running in this year's edition of the world's oldest cinema competition, including films featuring several Hollywood stars. Despite the recent US screenwriters' strike which delayed the release of many films, meaning they were too late to be considered , five American-produced movies did find a berth in the competition, festival director Marco Mueller said. Included is Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme's, Rachel Getting Married, starring upcoming Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway and Academy-Award nominated Debra Winger. Other American films are Kathryn Bigelow's Hurt Locker, starring Ralph Fiennes, and Darren Aronofsky's, The Wrestler, with Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei. Box-office stars Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger pair up in Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Arriaga's, The Burning Plain - the only film made by a Latin American director to make the competition line-up. Mueller speaking at a Rome news conference likened the choosing of films in this year's edition, the 65th, to the 'shuffling of playing cards,' explaining that there was no theme or nationality dominating the selection. 'We welcome a strong African return,' Mueller said, referring to Ethiopian director Haile Gerima's, Teza. Completing the African presence in the competition is Algerian-born Tariq Teguia's, Gabbla, (Inland). A 'powerful presence' by four Italian films reflects 'the current excellent moment,' for Italian cinema Mueller said, alluding to the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where Italian films won two of the top honours. Japan is represented by three films, two of them animated features - The Sky Crawlers and Ponyo on Cliff by the Sea, respectively by Mamoru Oshii and Hayao Miyazaki. German director Wim Wenders will head the jury at this year's festival which runs from August 27 to September 6 in the lagoon city. The world premier of Burn After Reading, by Oscar-winning directors Joel and Ethan Coen - a film not in competition - will open the festival on August 27.