Four Fun Facts About Venice73

Monica Bellucci, Ennio Morricone and Paolo Sorrentino will make this year’s festival extra-special.

Terrence Malik’s documentary, 40 years in the making, is Voyage of Time, will be in competition and feature music by Ennio Morricone.

2. The last two Best Picture winners, Spotlight and Birdman, both had their world premieres along with the critically acclaimed and Oscar nominated Gravity, so the relevance of the Venice Film Festival is not in question, as it was a few years ago.

Emma Stone in Venice for Birdman - she'll be back this year for La La Land. — Emma Stone in Venice for Birdman – she’ll be back this year for La La Land.

3. Monica Bellucci will star in a Serbian movie that is in competition for the Golden Lion, Na Mlijecnom Putu, (On the Milky Road), from director Emir Kusturica.

4. Paolo Sorrentino’s return to the Lido is important, because he’s been a fixture at Cannes for the last dozen years and rumor had it he wouldn’t ever return to the Venice Film Festival.

Two episodes of his HBO mini-series The Young Pope, starring Jude Law and Diane Keaton, will premiere as a special event at Venice, and as Variety Magazine puts it, “The fact that the producers are showing “Pope” in Venice before it airs is a clear indication they are confident they have a hit on their hands.”