After a difficult pandemic edition of the world’s oldest and most glamorous film festival in 2020, the dolce vita may just be back. The 78^th edition promises the return of the world’s media, international filmmakers and Hollywood stars.

The usual café stands will replace last year’s Corona checkpoints where anyone entering the festival area had to have their temperature taken. But make no mistake, safety measures will still be in place, from masks at screenings, proof of vaccination or negative test and certainly no crowds in small party venues.

But the festival is back, and so are the filmmakers and actors. Pedro Almodovar will be on hand to open the Mostra on Wednesday with his newest Madres Paraleles (Parallel Mothers) starring some of the director’s favorites, Penelope Cruz and Rossy de Palma. Cruz will also be seen in another competition film, the aptly titled Competencia Oficial (Official Competition) by Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn, in which she co-stars with another old friend who owes his career start to Almodovar, Antonio Banderas. Both films are from Spain. The other 19 films in the main competition hail from Germany, Sweden, UK, Greece, France, Belgium, Czech Republic, Argentina, China, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Poland, Estonia, Russia, Ukraine and Mexico, and more than half are co-productions by two or more countries, a clear sign of the challenges in financing for international projects. The most anticipated film may just be Pablo Larrain’s Spencer starring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana. The film is a reimagining of one crucial Christmas holiday at Sandringham when the marriage of the Wales’s was already on the rocks. Four films are homegrown by Gabriele Mainetti, Michelangelo Frammartino, Fabio and Damiano d’Innocenzo and Italy’s star directors Mario Martone and Paolo Sorrentino who premieres his newest, È  Stata la Mano di Dio (The Hand of God), a 1980s coming-of-age story about a young man who comes out of heartbreak and meets his big soccer idol, Diego Maradona.

Five directors are female, among them Jane Campion who brings The Power of the Dog with Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst to the Lido. Ana Lily Amirpour shows Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, Jeon Jong-seo and Kate Hudson star in this fantasy adventure about a girl with psychic powers who escapes a mental asylum and flees to New Orleans. And, of course, the directorial debut of Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter, with Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris, Alba Rohrwacher and Gyllenhaal’s husband Peter Sarsgaard.

The female directors’ quotient is still not up to par in Venice, a fact that has been heavily discussed in the international media for the past few weeks leading up to the festival. It doesn’t matter to critics that the Orizzonti section features 50% women, because in the Out of Competition part there are zero, bringing the overall percentage down to 24. Last year’s quota was 44% female, so it is a huge gap. To stay current and react to world events, the festival organizers have added an international panel on Afghanistan and the situation of Afghan filmmakers and artists that will take place on Saturday. Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi will be one of the participants. Karimi, the first female head of the Afghan film commission, just fled her homeland a few weeks ago during the fall of Kabul.   

But it seems seasoned festival director Alberto Barbera put more emphasis on securing festival sponsorship in these challenging times by making sure Hollywood was heavily represented: and so the paparazzi and the reporters of the world’s yellow press will no doubt be very happy chasing the very famous screenwriting duo of Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck – with new old girlfriend J. Lo in tow – up and down the Lido and the Grand Canal. Add to them the expected stars of Chloe Zhao’s Eternals, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, Kit Harrington and Angelina Jolie, as well as the Dune-remake actors Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Josh Brolin, Oscar Isaac and Javier Bardem, and we can safely say that the glamour of Venezia has returned full force. If the films live up to the hype remains to be seen over the next 12 days.

The Jury under the presidency of Bong Joon-Ho will decide who walks off with the Volpi cups and the Golden Lion.

Only one thing is certain: this year’s recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award will have the audience at the ceremony in the Palazzo del Cinema in stitches. After all, we’re talking about Jamie Lee Curtis and Roberto Benigni.