UPDATED: The world's oldest film fest's lineup includes movies from Lars von Trier and James Franco and films starring Al Pacino, Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke, Bill Murray and Jennifer Aniston.

ROME – The Venice Film Festival on Thursday morning unveiled its lineup, including the 20 films in its competition section.

Venice Biennale president Paolo Baratta and film festival director Alberto Barbera greeted guests at Rome's regal St. Regis Grand Hotel Thursday morning to announce the films for the 71st edition of the world's oldest film fest.

Among the competition films will be Fatih Akin's The Cut, Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence and Roy Andersson's A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence.

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Meanwhile, David Gordon Green's Manglehorn has Al Pacino set as a lonely locksmith in a small-time Texas town. And Willem Dafoe leads Abel Ferrara's new look at the life of one of Italy's most controversial directors and writers, Pier Paolo Pasolini. The film explores the artist's last day of life in Rome before his tragic death.

In German-Turkish director Akin's final chapter of his trilogy of love, death and the devil, French actor Tahar Rahim stars as the silent lead in The Cut, which was originally seen as a contender for the Cannes competition. Akin last took home the special jury prize at Venice with much lighter fare, Soul Kitchen, in 2009.

In its out of competition program, Venice will screen the director's cut of Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac Volume II, James Franco's The Sound and the Fury, Peter Bogdanovich's She's Funny That Way, Barry Levinson's The Humbling and Lisa Cholodenko's Olive Kitteridge, a miniseries for HBO.

The Venice event has strived to connect the dots between cinema as art, as entertainment and as an industry. And each year, it attracts a range of international celebrities to the Lido.

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Among the stars to be featured in films in Venice this year are Dafoe, who beyond Pasolini also appears in Nymphomaniac Volume II, Franco and Pacino, who is pulling double-duty in Gordon Green's movie and Levinson's The Humbling. Films in the lineup also feature Seth Rogen and Jon Hamm (who appear with Franco in his film), Bill Murray (Olive Kitteridge), Ethan Hawke (in Andrew Niccol's competition entry Good Kill and an out-of-competition entry), Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson (She's Funny That Way) and Viggo Mortensen (in David Olehoffen's competition entry Loin Des Hommes).

The festival's Horizons section will have a diverse lineup that also has star power, including Michael Almereyda's Cymbeline with Milla Jovovich, Ed Harris, Dakota Johnson, Penn Badgley, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman and Hawke. It is a modern take on the Shakespeare play based on legends surrounding an early Celtic king.

Also among the films fighting for the Golden Lion top prize and adding star power is Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's festival opener Birdman, or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance. The film is a black comedy starring Michael Keaton as a washed-up superhero actor who stages a Broadway play in order to be taken seriously as an artist. The film also stars Ed Norton, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis and Naomi Watts. The movie opens in the U.S. in October.

Hong Kong director Ann Hui will close the festival with an out of competition screening of The Golden Era. The biopic chronicles the life of Xiao Hong, who wrote about Japanese imperialism in China. Hui will also head the Horizons jury in Venice.

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Barbera said Thursday that 55 films will premiere in Venice overall. He said he saw 1,500 films this year. "You have to trust me: the films are of very high quality," he said of the lineup.

French composer Alexandre Desplat, a six-time Oscar nominee, will head the international jury in Venice alongside director Jessica Hausner, writer Jhumpa Lahiri and actor Tim Roth.

Two Americans will be awarded with Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Awards. One is Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Scorsese 's editor, who has won three Oscars (Raging Bull, The Aviator, The Departed) and most recently collaborated with the director on The Wolf of Wall Street. The other is independent documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, who will be honored for his long directing career, comprising over 41 films since 1967.

Here is the full lineup for the Venice competition, out of competition and Horizons sections.

COMPETITION

Fatih Akin The Cut

Roy Andersson A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

Ramin Bahrani 99 Homes

Rakhshan Bani-Etemad Ghessha (Tales)

Xavier Beauvois La rancon de la gloire

Saverio Costanzo Hungry Hearts

Alix Delaporte Le dernier coup de marteau

Abel Ferrara Pasolini

David Gordon Green Manglehorn

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance

Benoit Jacquot 3 Coeurs (Three Hearts)

Andrei Konchalovsky The Postman's White Nights

Mario Martone Il Giovane Favoloso

Kaan Mujdeci Sivas

Francesco Munzi Anime Nere

Andrew Niccol Good Kill

David Oelhoffen Loin des hommes

Joshua Oppenheimer The Look of Silence

Shinya Tsukamoto Nobi (Fires on the Plain)

Wang Xiaoshuai Red Amnesia

 

OUT OF COMPETITION

Emir Kusturica and others Words With Gods (other directors: Guillermo Arriaga, Amos Gitai, Mira Nair, Warwick Thornton, Hector Babenco, Bahman Ghobai, Hideo Nakata, Alex de la Iglesia)

Peter Bogdanovich She's Funny That Way

Peter Ho-sun Chan Dearest

Lisa Cholodenko Olive Kitteridge

Joe Dante Burying The Ex

Edoardo De Angelis Perez

Davide Ferrario La Zuppa Del Demonio

James Franco The Sound And The Fury

Amos Gitai Tsili

Sabina Guzzanti La Trattativa

Ann Hui The Golden Era

Im Kwontaek Make-Up

Barry Levinson The Humbling

Manoel de Oliveira The Old Man of Belem

Gabriele Salvatores Italy In A Day

Ulrich Seidl In The Basement

Anthony Stacchi, Annable Graham The Boxtrolls

Lars Von Trier Nymphomaniac Volume II (long version) Director's Cut

 

HORIZONS

Naji Abu Nowar Theeb

Salome Alexi Line of Credit

Michele Alhaique Senza Nessuna Pieta

Michael Almereyda Cymbeline

Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern Near Death Experience

Renato De Maria La Vita Oscena

Quentin Dupieux Realite

Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala I Spy/I Spy

Hong Sangsoo Hill of Freedom

Duane Hopkins Bypass

Mohsen Makhmalbaf The President

Ami Canaan Mann Your Right Mind

Franco Maresco Belluscone Una Storia Siciliana

Elchin Musaoglu Nabat

Josh Safdie, Ben Safdie Heaven Knows What

Ognjen Sviliviv These Are the Rules

Chaitanya Tamhane Court

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