The 82nd Venice International Film Festival opened this week with a slate of high-profile U.S. titles that pulled major talent to the Lido and set an early tone for the 10-day event. Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos premiered “Bugonia,” a darkly comic kidnapping thriller starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and newcomer Aidan Delbis. Early notices described the film as the most accessible work of Lanthimos’s career, and Thursday night’s screening ended with a standing ovation that festival observers timed at almost seven minutes. Focus Features plans to release the picture in U.S. cinemas on 24 October. Noah Baumbach also entered the main competition with “Jay Kelly,” a self-referential road drama featuring George Clooney as an aging movie star and Adam Sandler as his long-suffering manager. Clooney skipped the daytime press conference with what organisers called a severe sinus infection but later joined co-stars Sandler and Laura Dern on the red carpet for the evening premiere. The Netflix-backed film is one of 21 titles vying for the Golden Lion, which will be awarded on 6 September. Beyond the competition lineup, Oscar winners Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix have boarded Kaouther Ben Hania’s Gaza-based drama “The Voice of Hind Rajab” as executive producers. The reconstruction of a 2024 incident that drew U.N. scrutiny will debut in Venice on 3 September before heading to Toronto. With early acclaim for “Bugonia,” strong curiosity around “Jay Kelly” and a politically charged out-of-competition slate, the festival is positioning itself as a bellwether for the autumn awards season.