LONDON — This year’s Venice Film Festival will include Kristen Stewart in a sci-fi romance, Idris Elba at war and a thriller starring Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson, as well as potentially awards-worthy performances from Eddie Redmayne, Johnny Depp and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Organizers announced a 21-strong competition lineup Wednesday for the festival, which takes over the Italian maritime city’s Lido island for 11 days in September.
It includes Drake Doremus’ futuristic “Equals,” with Stewart and Nicholas Hoult; Luca Guadagnino’s “A Bigger Splash,” with Swinton, Johnson and Ralph Fiennes; and Cary Fukunaga’s African child-soldier story “Beasts of No Nation,” starring Elba.
Competition for the top Golden Lion prize also includes Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s animated feature “Anomalisa”; musician Laurie Anderson’s “Heart of a Dog”; and “The Danish Girl,” from “The King’s Speech” director Tom Hooper, which stars 2014 Oscar-winner Redmayne as a transgender woman in the 1920s.
