Venice film fest bets on world premiere lineup

ROME, July 28 (Reuters) This year's Venice Film Festival will take a gamble by screening only world premieres in its main competition, organisers said as they unveiled the lineup for the world's oldest cinema contest.

''It's a gamble because there is a risk of failure,'' said Marco Muller, director of the 63rd edition of the festival, which starts on August 30, said yesterday.

''But the successes scored at the box offices and at the Oscars by last year's Venice premieres pushed us to make this choice. It's the first time in the festival's history,'' he told a news conference in Rome.

Twenty-three of the films presented at the Lido last year, both in the main competition and elsewhere, went on to win Oscar nominations, although gay romance ''Brokeback Mountain'' -- which won the top prize in Venice -- surprisingly failed to garner the coveted best film Academy Award.

Four star-packed Hollywood films, including Brian De Palma's ''The Black Dahlia'' which will open the festival, will vie for this year's Golden Lion top prize along with 17 new movies from directors like Stephen Frears, Alfonso Cuaron and Alain Resnais.

Outside the competition, Oliver Stone's ''World Trade Center'', David Lynch's ''Inland Empire'' and Manoel de Oliveira's ''Belle toujours'' -- a sequel of Luis Bunuel's classic ''Belle de Jour'' -- are among the most attention-grabbing titles.

RED CARPET Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, Adrien Brody, Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins and Clive Owen are some of the celebrities who could hit the red carpet during the 10-day event, which will screen a total of 62 films.

Besides Hollywood, the lineup highlights Asian cinema but also gives plenty of room to Italy, which will be represented by 10 films of which two are in the main competition.

''This year we have films from 27 countries against 18 for last year, including Chad, Malaysia and Indonesia,'' said Muller. ''It's great to have this kind of diversity.'' The Venice festival has been dogged by controversy and organisational problems as well as lack of financial backing for its new 100-million-euro (127.5 million dollars), iceberg-shaped Palace of Cinema.

But Muller and Davide Croff, director of the Biennale art foundation that oversees the Lido competition, were upbeat about the future.

''We had a very good edition last year and this year we'll strive to do even better,'' Muller said, adding that Italy's new centre-left government had pledged funds for the new Palazzo.

Croff also played down rivalry with Rome's new international film festival, whose debut is scheduled for October.

''I think people have quite unsuccessfully tried to stir up a controversy. Venice will cooperate with Rome,'' he said.

Muller said 1,429 films applied for this year's selection, 300 more than last year.

Reuters DKA DB0911