New films from heavyweight directors David Lynch, Oliver Stone, Stephen Frears and Brian de Palma will premiere at the 63rd Venice Film Festival next month, the organizers announced in Rome last week.

 

Oliver Stone's much-anticipated treatment of 9/11, World Trade Center, which will be released in the US as the festival opens, gets its European premiere in Venice.

 

Stone's World Trade Center stars Nicolas Cage and tells the true story of two police officers trapped in the rubble of the Twin Towers.

 

Cage and Crash star Michael Pena play police officers John McLoughlin and William Jimeno.

 

Stone has promised a "sensitive" film after victims' families expressed concerns. Proceeds from the film will fund a memorial for victims of the September 11 attacks.

 

Three Asian films are among the 21 pictures in competition for the festival's prestigious Golden Lion, including Paprika, an animated film by Japanese director Satoshi Kon.

 

Mushi-shi, by Japan's Katsuhiro Otomo, is also up for the award, starring Joe Odagiri and Makiko Esumi.

 

Hong Kong director Johnnie To's Exiled, starring Francis Ng and Nick Cheung, completes the Asian line-up for the major prize.

 

In all, Japan is represented by six films in various sections of the festival, while the Chinese mainland has three and Hong Kong has two.

 

Edgy US director Lynch has cloaked his film Inland Empire in mystery, saying only that it is set in LA's inland valley and is "about a woman in trouble." The film, featuring out of competition, stars Laura Dern and Jeremy Irons.

 

Lynch will also be awarded a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement in film at 60 he is one of the youngest directors to receive the prize.

 

Festival director Marco Mueller said the fact that Venice could attract so many big directors premiering their works "demonstrates the affection for and the faith in the festival," which is competing for films with the more commercial Cannes event in France and a new festival in Rome.

 

But Venice, which runs from August 30 to September 9, will have more than its share of star appeal apart from serious directors.

 

The curtain-raiser, Brian de Palma's The Black Dahlia, adapted from James Elroy's detective novel. The film is a fictional account of the lives of several people during the final hours in the life of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the assassinated US president, and a former presidential candidate himself. He was shot dead on June 6, 1968.

 

Mueller pointed out at a news conference that all 21 films in competition for the prestigious Golden Lion, awarded to the best film, are world premieres.

 

(China Daily July 31, 2006)