Overview

• The 82nd Mostra runs from August 27 to September 6 and opens with Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia, with Alexander Payne leading the jury.
• Werner Herzog is honored with the lifetime Golden Lion at the opening ceremony, presented by Francis Ford Coppola, and he screens his documentary Ghost Elephants out of competition.
• Julia Roberts arrives for her first Venice appearance with Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, which screens out of competition at the decision of the director and producer Amazon.
• George and Amal Clooney are among early arrivals as Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly premieres Thursday, while high‑profile titles include Olivier Assayas’s The Wizard of the Kremlin, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite, and Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother.
• A petition by more than 1,500 cultural figures urges disinvitations over positions on the Israel–Gaza war; the festival cites its role as a forum for dialogue, some actors withdrew from Julian Schnabel’s In the Hand of Dante, and a small pro‑Palestinian protest took place Wednesday with a larger demonstration planned for Saturday.