Johnny Depp, Kristen Stewart, Tilda Swinton and Eddie Redmayne, who won the best actor Oscar for his performance as celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything last February, are among the celebrities slated for the red carpet at the festival.

"In the last years, the number of film festivals in the world has been growing, and competition among them has increased too," Paolo Baratta, president of the Venice Biennale, foundation organizer of the film festival, told the press conference.

The Venice event, Baratta stressed, has continued to focus on the idea that a film festival, in order to be "alive and vital," should combine traditional cinema with an "enlarged eye" on life and art.

"This is a festival with a strong identity, which neither takes position against market nor adapts itself to the market expectations," the director of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival Alberto Barbera, who has also headed the festival's past three editions, told the press conference.

Barbera said that an incredible variety is what characterizes the Venice festival. "We are not seeking originality at all costs, but are looking for research of surprising works," Barbera said. In his view, "the American assortment will be the most surprising one."

For the first time, this year the festival will include a night public screening of numerous films at a new open-air arena, named The Movie Garden in the gardens of the Casino at Lido of Venice, which will also feature meetings with cinema personalities.

It was a desire, organizers explained, to give everyone, occasional spectators and non-accredited festival-goers, the opportunity to experience the festival in a spirit of entertainment and free of charge, with the only limitation of seating capacity.

The Venice International Film Festival, whose first edition was held in 1932, enjoys the distinction of the oldest film festival in the world. The Golden Lion is considered one of the most prestigious film awards globally, like the Golden Palm in Cannes and the Golden Bear of Berlin.

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