Hollywood’s biggest stars and Europe’s most famous faces are in Venice for 10 days for the city’s annual movie festival, as it makes up for a poor attendance in 2023.

In its 81st year, the Venice Film Festival is the movie industry’s starting gun event for the awards season, which peaks in March at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles.

In the past three years, films that premiered at Venice went on to receive 77 Oscar nominations and 14 wins, making it the place to be seen for actors, producers and directors.

In the Italian city, director Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and his cast of Michael Keaton, Jenna Ortega, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara were the first to hit the red carpet. The sequel ghost film made its global premiere on August 28.

Oscar-winning Australian actor Cate Blanchett, returning as the star of Alfonso Cuarón’s new Apple TV+ limited series, Disclaimer, was among the first major movie stars to arrive on the Italian island of Lido di Venezia.

For a body of work spanning 50 years with classics such as Alien and Gorillas in the Midst, Sigourney Weaver, 74, was also on the carpet, where she later received the Golden Lion For Lifetime Achievement during the opening ceremony.

Venice royalty, George and Amal Clooney, along with Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga, Joaquin Phoenix, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Tilda Swinton and Adrien Brody will make appearances at the Palazzo del Cinema over the next week for their own premieres.

“Everybody is really very eager to come back to Venice after the long strike of last year. So we’re going to have the most crowded red carpet ever, I think,” the festival’s artistic director Alberto Barbera told Reuters.

The 2023 strike by Hollywood actors forced many to skip the gathering, with unions telling their members not to promote their projects to put pressure on the big studios.

“It seems that the productions could not invite all the talents so they paid for the ticket and the hotel and everything just to be here,” he said.

Among the films contending for the Golden Lion top prize are Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, starring Phoenix and Gaga, Pablo Larrain’s Maria, with Jolie playing the opera diva Maria Callas, and Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, with Craig defying the James Bond stereotype and playing a gay American.

Barbera said Craig had “a couple of sex scenes that are quite full on” – one of several movies on show that don’t shy away from sex after years of relative prudishness.

“It seems that sex was banned from the screens in the last 10, 15 years. I don’t know if it was a matter of a sort of auto censorship or whatever. Now it’s back,” he said.

Venice prides itself on drawing blockbusters and auteur movies, established names and fresh faces, with over half the competition films this year made by directors who are new to the festival.

“It’s really a mirror of the contemporary cinema,” Barbera said.

A total of 21 movies will play in the main competition.

Barbera, who received 4000 film applications, said he wouldn’t be surprised “if some of the films do not appear again at the Oscars ceremony”.

Winona Ryder. Photo: Getty

Clara Soccini. Photo: Getty

Paola Turani. Photo: Getty

Ricky D’Ambrose, Bárbara Paz, Gianni Canova, Taylor Russell and Jacob Wong attend the Luigi De Laurentiis Venice Award for a Debut Film. Photo: Getty

Italian actor Sveva Alviti at the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice premiere. Photo: Getty

Brazilian model Izabel Goulart brings the glamour to the ghost sequel premiere. Photo: Getty

Tim Burton and Michael Keaton make their way to the Lido. Photo: Getty

Italian actor and author Chiara Francini at the Hotel Excelsior pier. Photo: Getty

Sigourney Weaver with the Golden Lion. Photo: Getty

Legendary director Tim Burton with Italian actor Monica Bellucci. Photo: Getty

Who’s the star? Michael Keaton and Catherine O’Hara. Photo: Getty

Italian runway model Mariacarla Boscono. Photo: Getty

Wednesday‘s Jenna Ortega. Photo: Getty

Taylor Russell. Photo: Getty