The Venice Film Festival (Sep 1-11) has unveiled an eclecticline-up which features a strong US contingent, celebrated European auteurs and,following in the footsteps of Cannes, the Lido's first animation in competitionin thirty years.

In presenting the line-up on Thursday in Rome, thefestival's new artistic director, Marco Mueller, singled out the strength ofcurrent American filmmaking. "There are a lot of American films in theline-up. Several times, we [the selection team] saw a European film and saidit's not bad, but then would say, no, just look at that American one!"

The 20 American titles that will screen in various sectionsinclude Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow with Jude Law, GwynethPaltrow and Angelina Jolie, Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, ShaineeGabel's A Love Song for Bobby Long, Michael Mann's Collateral,and three competition titles: Mira Nair's Vanity Fair, Jonathan Glazer'sBirth with Nicole Kidman and Todd Solondz's Palindromes.

Countering those who believed that Mueller, an Asianspecialist, would include a hefty list of Asian titles in his first line-up,the director said this year the festival would actually have fewer Far Easterntitles than in the past. "Wesimply chose the best titles that were available from around the world,regardless of which country they came from," he said. "Yes, there arefewer Asian films than in the past, but I don't need to justify myself, giventhat I, myself, have produced many Asian titles during the course of mycareer."

Still, the Venice competition will include the worldpremiere of Japanese animation Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki -its first animation feature in competition in 30 years - and three other Asiantitles: Korea's Ha-ryu-in-saeng by Im Kwon-taek, Taiwanese director HouHsiao-Hsien's Cafe Lumiere, and China's Shijie by Jia Zhangke.

Mueller has trimmed the festival back to a singlecompetition, which this year includes 21 titles. Overall, the Biennale has selected 71 non-digital features forits line-up, after viewing 1,892 titles. Last year, the official selectionincluded an extra 130 films, Mueller said.

The single competition's 21 titles will include Mike Leigh'sVera Drake, Francois Ozon's 5 x 2, Wim Wenders' Land of Plentyand Gianni Amelio's The Keys to the House.

Out-of-Competition screenings include the much-awaited worldpremieres of Eros by Michelangelo Antonioni, Stephen Soderbergh and WongKar-Wai, animation feature Shark Tale and Michael Radford's TheMerchant of Venice with Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes and Al Pacino.

In all, the main competition has three Italian titles -Gianni Amelio's The Keys To The House with Charlotte Rampling, MichelePlacido's Ovunque Sei with Stefano Accorsi, and Guido Chiesa's Lavorare Con Lentezza.

The festival will kick-off on September 1st with thescreening of The Terminal, with director Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hankson hand on the Lido. Japanese out-of-competition animation feature Steamboywill close the festival. It is one of three animation features included in theLido line-up.

Venice 61 Competition

Gianni Amelio The Keys To The House (Le Chiavi Di Casa) (ItalyFrance Germany) - 105'
Kim Rossi Stuart, Charlotte Rampling, Andrea Rossi

Alejandro Amenábar Mar Adentro (Spain) - 125'
Javier Bardem, Belen Rueda, Lola Dueñas

Guido Chiesa Lavorare Con Lentezza (Italy) - 111'
Claudia Pandolfi, Valerio Mastandrea, Tommaso Ramenghi, Marco Luisi

Claire Denis L'intrus (France) - 125'
Michel Subor, Beatrice Dalle, Gregoire Colin

Arnaud Desplechin Rois Et Reine (France) - 150'
Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Devos, Catherine Deneuve, Noemie Lvovsky

Amos Gitai Promised Land (Israel, France) - 90'
Anne Parillaud, Hanna Schygulla, Rosamund Pike, Diana Bespechni

Jonathan Glazer Birth (USA) - 100'
Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Anne Heche, Danny Huston

Hou Hsiao-hsien Cafe Lumière (Japan) - 104'
Yo Hitoto, Tadanobu Asano

Im Kwon-taek Raging Years (Ha-ryu-in-saeng) (Korea) -105'
Cho Seung-woo, Kim Min-sun, Yoo Ha-joon

Jia Zhangke Shijie (China Japan) - 120'
Zhao Tao Chen Taisheng

Mike Leigh Vera Drake (UK) - 125'
Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Peter Wight

Marziyeh Meshkini Stray Dogs (Iran) - 93'
Gol Ghoti, Zahed, Twiggy

Hayao Miyazaki Howl's Moving Castle (Japan) - 119'
Animazione, voci di: Chieko Baisho, Takuya Rimura, Akihiro Miwa

Mira Nair Vanity Fair (USA) - 140'
Reese Witherspoon, Eileen Atkins, Bob Hoskins, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers

François Ozon 5×2 (Cinq Fois Deux) (France) - 90'
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Françoise Fabian, Michael Lonsdale

Nikos Panayotopoulos Delivery (Greece) - 100'
Thanos Samaras, Alexia Icatsiki, Dimitris Imelos

Michele Placido Ovunque Sei (Italy) - 85'
Barbora Bobulova, Stefano Accorsi, Stefano Dionisi, Violante Placido

Svetlana Proskurina Udalionnyj dostup (Russia) - 85'
Dana Agisheva, Elena Rufanova, Vladimir Ilyin

Todd Solondz Palindromes (USA) - 95'
Ellen Barkin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stephen Adly Guirgis

Wim Wenders Land Of Plenty (Germany) - 114'
John Diehl, Michelle Williams

Greg Zglinski Tout Un Hiver Sans Feu (Switzerland) - 88'
Aurelien Recoing, Marie Matheron, Gabriela Muskala, Blerim Gjoci

Out Of Competition

Michelangelo Antonioni, Steven Soderbergh, Wong Kar-Wai Eros(France Hong Kong Italy USA) - 104'
Christopher Bucholz, Luisa Ranieri / Robert Downey Jr., Alan Arkin, Ele Keats /Gong Li, Chang Chen

Claude Chabrol La Demoiselle D'honneur (France) - 110'
Benoît Magimel, Aurore Clement, Laura Smet

Daniele Cipri, Franco Maresco Come Inguaiammo Il Cinema Italiano(Italy) - 90'
Franco Franchi, Ciccio Ingrassia, Lando Buzzanca, Pino Caruso

Jonathan Demme The Manchurian Candidate (Usa) - 132'
Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, John Voight

Marc Forster Finding Neverland (Usa) - 101'
Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie, Dustin Hoffman

Spike Lee She Hate Me (USA) - 138'
Monica Bellucci, Woody Harrelson, John Turturro, Anthony Mackie, KerryWashington

Michael Mann Collateral (USA) - 119'
Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith

Carlo Mazzacurati L'amore Ritrovato (Italy) - 108'
Stefano Accorsi, Maya Sansa, Marco Messeri

Kira Muratova Nastrojscik (Russia) - 154'
Renata Litvinova, George Deliyev, Nina Ruslanova

Manoel de Oliveira O Quinto Imperio (Portugal, France) - 127'
Luis Miguel Cintra, Ricardo Treda, Gloria De Matos

Otomo Katsuhiro Steamboy (Japan) - 126'
Animation, voices of: Anne Suzuki, Manami Konishi, Katsuo Nakamura

Michael Radford The Merchant of Venice (UK, Italy) - 124'
Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes

Steven Spielberg The Terminal (USA) - 131'
Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stanley Tucci, Diego Luna

Johnny To Throw Down (Hong Kong) - 95'
Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Louis Koo, Cherrie In

Out of Competition: Special Events

Victoria Jenson, Bibo Bergeron Shark Tale (USA) - 90'
Animation voices of: Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Renee Zellweger, Jack Black,Angelina Jolie, Martin Scorsese

Antonietta De Lillo Il Resto Di Niente (Italy) - 103'
Maria De Medeiros, Rosario Sparno, Raffaele Di Florio

Venezia Orizzonti

Alejandro Agresti Un Mundo Menos Peor (Argentina Italy) - 90'
Monica Galán, Carlos Roffe

Gregg Araki Mysterious Skin (USA) - 106'
Elisabeth Shue, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zarve Huett

Robin Campillo Les Revenants (France) - 103'
Geraldine Pailha, Jonathan Zaccai, Frederic Pierrot

Mircea Danieluc Ambasadori, cautam patrie (Romania) - 112'
Horatius Malaele, Marius Stanescu, Mircea Danieluc

Ilan Duran Cohen Les Petits Fils (France) - 84'
Reine Ferrato, Guillaume Quatravaux, Jean Philippe Set, Brice Cauvin

Frederic Fonteyne La Femme De Gilles (Belgium FranceLuxembourg) - 108'
Emmanuelle Devos, Clovis Cornillac, Laura Smet

Shainee Gabel A Love Song For Bobby Long (USA) -119'
John Travolta, Scarlett Johansson

Noam Gonick Stryker (Canada) - 93'
Brent Neale, Ryan Rajendra Black, Tri Cao

Pirjo Honkasalo The 3 Rooms of Melancholia (Finland SwedenDenmark) - 106'
Malik Gathev, Hadizhai Gatheva

Gregory Jacobs Criminal (USA) - 87'
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Mullan, John C. Reilly, Diego Luna

Yasmine Kassari L'enfant endormi (Morocco, Belgium) - 95'
Mounia Osfour, Rachida Brachni

Vincenzo Marra Vento Di Terra (Italy) - 90'
Vincenzo Pacilli, Edoardo Melone, Francesco Giuffrida

Francesco Munzi Saimir (Italy) - 88'
Mishel Manoku, Xhevdet Feri, Lavinia Guglielman, Anna Ferruzzo

Oskar Roehler Agnes Und Seine Brüder (Germany) - 116'
Katja Riemann, Moritz Bleibbren, Herbert Knaup, Martin Weiss

Darrell James Roodt Yesterday (South Africa) - 96'
Leleti Khumalo, Lihle Muelase, Kenneth Kambule

Valia Santella Te Lo Leggo Negli Occhi (Italy) - 82'
Stefania Sandrelli, Teresa Saponangelo, Camilla Di Nicola, Luigi Maria Burruano

Ramadam Suleman Zulu Love Letter (South Africa FranceGermany) - 105'
Pamela Nomvete, Marimbe, Mpumi Malatsi

Miike Takashi Izo (Japan) - 128'
Beat Takeshi, Nakayama Kazuya

Pablo Trapero Familia Rodante (Argentina, Spain) - 103'
Liliana Capurro, Graciana Chironi, Ruth Dobel

Shinya Tsukamoto Vital (Japan) - 86'
Tadanobu Asano, Tsukamoto Nami, Kiki

Venezia Orizzonti - Special Events


Rachid Bouchareb Banania Ou Thiaroye (Algeria Francia) - 9'

William Kentridge Tide Table (Sud Africa) - 11'

German Kral Musica Cubana (Germania) - 88'
Pio Leiva, Barbaro Marin, Mario Rivera, Telmary Diaz, Ugo Martinez, OstalgiaLesmes

Edgar Reitz Heimat 3 - Kronik Einer Zeitenwende (Germania) - 680'
Henry Arnold, Salome Kammer, Michael Kausch

Lionel Rogosin Come Back Africa (1959) (Usa) - 82'
Zachariah Mgabi, Vinah Bendile, Arnold Aunty