Tony Barson/WireImage.comIf a film festival is held in Italy and George Clooney isn't there to represent, does it even happen? The answer to that conundrum will have to wait another year.
The ever-dapper Oscar winner, along with new papa Brad Pitt, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Marisa Tomei, Ralph Fiennes and Joel and Ethan Coen, are among the stars set to take a turn on the Lido when the 65th Annual Venice Film Festival kicks off Aug. 27.
The Coen brothers' Burn After Reading, which reunites Clooney and Pitt, will not screen in competition at the fest but will be kicking off the cinematic proceedings by opening the 11-day movie marathon.
It's expected to be Pitt's first red carpet run since welcoming twins earlier this month, though his better half, Angelina Jolie, is unlikely to make a showing.
There will be plenty of other stars on hand to bolster the glam factor, albeit not as many as usual. Due to the months-long writers' strike, only five English-language films even made the cut for the competition.
One of them, the Hathaway-starring Rachel Getting Married, will be screened with the hopes of locking down the top prize, the Golden Lion. The film centers around an ex-model whose unsuccessfully spent the past 10 years going in and out of rehab and comes home for her sister's wedding.
Other U.S. films in the 21-strong competition include The Burning Plain, a family drama starring Theron and Kim Basinger as daughter and shown-in-flashback mother; The Wrestler, with Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood and Mickey Rourke as the titular has-been athlete who returns to his abandoned family; and Fiennes rounds out the big names expected to attend, as he's starring in the Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker.
The Golden Lion, which last year went to Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, will be handed out on the closing night of the fest, Sept. 6.