Venice Film Festival Line-Up Announced

This year marks the 70th Venice Film Festival, one of the holy trifecta of fall festival season.  It was already announced that Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, his bold 3-D lost in space science fiction odyssey will be opening out of competition.  Here is the rest of the slate:

COMPETITION

Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin

Ana Arabia (Israel)- directed by Amos Gitai
Child of God (USA)- directed by James Franco- Just months after the Cannes premiere of Franco's Faulkner adaptation of As I Lay Dying, the actor-multi-hyphenate takes his adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel to Venice; Franco co-stars with Tim Blake Nelson. 
Es-Stouh (France)- directed by Merzak Allouache
Joe (USA)- directed by David Gordon Green-  Nicolas Cage and The Tree of Life's Tye Sheridan star in Green's latest, a drama about the relationship between an ex-con and a 15-year-old boy.
La Jalousie (France)- directed by Philippe Garrel
L'intrepido (Italy)- directed by Gianni Amelio
Miss Violence (Greece)- directed by Alexandros Avranas
Night Moves (USA)- directed by Kelly Reichardt
Philomena (UK)- directed by Stephen Frears- As expected Frears is premiering his latest drama-- about a woman and her search for her adult son-- in competition here.  Frears previously took his The Queen, Dirty Pretty Things and Liam to Venice.
The Policeman's Wife- directed by Philip Groning
Sacro Gra (Italy)- directed by Gianfranco Rosi
Stray Dogs (Taiwan)- directed by Ming-liang Tsai
Tom at the Farm (Canada)- directed by Xavier Dolan- The latest gay drama from the director of Laurence Anyways and I Killed My Mother.
Tracks (UK)- directed by John Curran- This biographical drama starring Mia Wasikowski and Adam Driver about a young woman who goes on a 1,700 mile trek across the deserts of West Australia will also play Toronto.  Curran previously directed Stone, The Painted Veil and We Don't Live Here Anymore.
Under the Skin (USA/UK)- directed by Jonathon Glazen-  Scarlett Johansson stars as in alien in Glazen's follow-up to Birth, the Nicole Kidman oddity that came out nine years ago.
The Unknown Known: The Life & Times of Donald Runsfeld (USA)- directed by Errol Morris
Via Castellana Bandiera (Italy)- directed by Emma Dante
The Wind Rises (Japan)- directed by Hayao Miyazaki
The Zero Theorem (USA)- directed by Terry Gilliam-- Gilliam's latest surrealist fantasia stars Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz and Tilda Swinton and involves a computer hacker's goal to discover the key to human existence.

Full list here.

Toronto Film Festival Line-Up Announced

The Toronto Film Festival is the biggest beast of the fall festival, with it's yearly line-ups that are massive and daunting and filled to the brim with the seasons awards hopefuls. Last year, it was at where Silver Linings Playbook started its awards run, winning the Audience Award (of which has also been doled out to past Best Picture winners like Slumdog Millionaire, American Beauty and, gulp, The King's Speech) which culminated in eight Oscar nominations and Jennifer Lawrence's victory.  Toronto can kill Oscar dreams just as it can ignite them.  Here's the line-up so far:

OPENING NIGHT

 The Fifth Estate (USA)- directed by Bill Condon (World Premiere) (trailer)

GALAS

American Dreams in China (Hong Kong/China)- directed by Peter Ho-Sun Chan (North American Premiere)
The Art of the Steal (Canada)- directed by Jonathon Sobol (World Premiere)
August: Osage County (USA)- directed by John Wells (World Premiere)- Heavy duty curio of 2013 with its massive ensemble (Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Juliette Lewis, Sam Shepard, Cumberbatch, etc.), so one quibble-- if this is ready for Toronto, why, oh why, is Weinstein waiting to release this during the dreaded Christmas glut?
Cold Eyes (South Korea)- directed by Cho Ui-seok & Kim Byung-seo (North American Premiere)
The Grand Seduction (Canada)- directed by Don McKellar (World Premiere)- Stars Taylor Kitsch of Battleship and John Mars infamy.
Kill Your Darlings (USA)- directed by John Korkidas (International Premiere)- Stars Daniel Radcliffe and Elizabeth Olsen; premiered at Sundance.
The Love Punch (France)- directed by Joel Hopkins (World Premiere)- Stars Emma Thompson and Pierce Brosnan.
The Lunchbox (India/France/Germany)- directed by Titesh Batra (North American Premiere)
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (UK)- directed by Justin Chadwick (World Premiere)- Another hot title from Weinstein with Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela-- can he score with the Academy a mere four years after Morgan Freeman was nominated for the same part?
Parkland (USA)- directed by Peter Landesman (World Premiere)- Stars Zac Efron and James Badge Dale.
The Railway Man (UK/Australia)- directed by Jonathan Teplitzky (World Premiere)- WWII drama with Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman; lacks a distributor at the moment.
The Right Kind of Wrong (Canada)- directed by Jeremiah Chechik (World Premiere)- Stars Ryan Kwanten (True Blood.)
Rush (USA/UK/Germany)- directed by Ron Howard
Shuddh Desi Romance (India)- directed by Maneesh Sharma (International Premiere)
Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (USA)- directed by Mike Myers (World Premiere)