Venice film festival opens with Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts and indie films
Actress Kate Hudson signs autographs upon arrival for the opening ceremony of the 69th Venice film festival on August 29, 2012 at Venice Lido. ‘The reluctant fundamentalist’ by Indian film director Mira Nair will open the 69th Venice film festival, the cinema mostra.
The 69th Venice International Film Festival opened Wednesday with a Mira Nair thriller about 9/11, and a number of Hollywood stars promoting their new movies.
The festival, which is the oldest in the world, kicked off with the premiere of Mira Nair's "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" a thriller about America after 9/11 and Islamic fundamentalism.
Joining the cast on the red carpet in Venice were stars Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts.
"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" stars British actor Riz Ahmed as "a Pakistani immigrant who first chases and then rejects the American dream, eventually falling in with a group of radical Islamists," according to The Guardian.
"Everybody's looking forward to getting down to work. There is a bunch of new work and inspiring films over the next few days," US producer and director Michael Mann told Agence France Presse.
Mann who heads up this year's jury said he would look in particular at "new methods of story-telling."
Other films to watch for: Robert Redford's "The Company You Keep" starring Redford as a former Weather Underground militant, Terrence Malick's "To the Wonder" with Ben Affleck and "The Master" with Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Japanese director Takeshi Kitano and South Korea director Kim Ki-duk will also attend.