LONDON () - The Venice picture festival opens on Wednesday with Hollywood A-listers George Clooney and Brad Pitt on the red carpet for the Coen brothers' eagerly awaited "Burn After Reading," simply from then on Tinseltown takes a back seat.
Asia could win the Golden Lion for best film for the fourth year running with three Japanese entries in competition, including animator Hayao Miyazaki's "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" which is already storming the box office at home.
Italy has four movies in the main line up of 21 movies vying for prizes at the world's oldest film festival, which is prestigious in its possess right and serves as an former springboard for Oscar glorification.
"The official rivalry at the Venice photographic film festival crataegus laevigata be called 'Venezia 65', but ... it is but coming of age as a launch pad for Academy Award fare," award watcher Tom O'Neil wrote on Web site "Gold Derby" (hypertext transfer protocol://goldderby.latimes.com).
"Burn After Reading" is not in competition, only reaction in Venice will indicate whether Joel and Ethan Coen can repeat their success of 2008 when "No Country For Old Men" won
