Chinese director Zhao Liang. [Photo/Agencies]

Real-life drama

Tragic and transformative real-life events loom large in the festival's strong slate of documentaries.

Zhao Liang's Golden Lion contender "Behemoth" shows giant mines gouging the Chinese steppe, while Evgeny Afineevsky's "Winter On Fire" charts the mass demonstrations that toppled Ukraine's government in 2014.

Amy Berg's "Janis" traces the short, sensational life of singer Janis Joplin, while aerial-photography master Yann Arthus-Bertrand celebrates humanity in the kaleidoscopic "Human," which has premieres in Venice and at the United Nations in New York on Sept 12.

Cinema controversy

No festival would be complete without a soul-searching debate over the future of cinema. This year's comes courtesy of streaming service Netflix, which is moving into fiction films with "Beasts of No Nation."

Netflix plans to release the African child-soldier drama simultaneously on-demand and in cinemas in October, a development that has alarmed distributors and movie theater owners.

Barbera is philosophical.

"We cannot avoid that the Internet and the new digital platforms are there, and they are competitors with the traditional theatrical circuit," he said. "It doesn't make any sense trying just to fight this trend. We have to find a way to collaborate."

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