Venice Film Festival: Documentaries on Oasis and Elon Musk, but few female directors

The Venice Film Festival has unveiled its program, highlighting a lineup dominated by documentaries and a notable lack of female directors in its main competition. The festival, set to open on September 2, will kick off with Danny Boyle's "Ink," a biopic about media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Among the films vying for the Golden Lion is Martin McDonagh's "Wild Horse Nine," described as a dark comedy about two CIA agents on Easter Island. Other contenders include Casey Affleck's directorial comeback with "Company" and Nanni Moretti's "Succedera Questa Notte." Swedish actress Alicia Vikander stars alongside Luca Marinelli in Andrea Pallaoro's "The Echo Chamber," which is based on an unfinished script by Bernardo Bertolucci.

Only one film, "Kvinde Ukendt" by Danish-Egyptian director May el-Toukhy, represents a female director in the main competition. The film focuses on a young woman in Denmark after World War II. Other notable entries in the competition include Lance Oppenheim's "Primetime," starring Robert Pattinson as a TV host who hunts pedophiles, and Florian Zeller's psychological thriller "Bunker," featuring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz.

Beyond the competition, the festival will showcase highly anticipated documentaries. Alex Gibney presents a film about Elon Musk, and "Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger" will explore the reunion of the Gallagher brothers, with festival director joking that the brothers have promised to attend. Luca Guadagnino returns with a seven-hour documentary on Bernardo Bertolucci, and Wim Wenders will premiere a documentary on architect Peter Zumthor.

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The Gallagher brothers have promised to show up