Three Italian films are going for the Golden Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival, Italian media said on Thursday.

Gianni Amelio's "La Stella Che Non C'e" (The star that there is not ) and Emanuele Crialese's "Nuovomondo" (The Golden Door) will be vying with 20 rivals including Alain Resnais' long-awaited return "Private Fears in Public Places", Alfonso Cuaron's " Children of Men" and Brian De Palma's "The Black Dahlia", which opens the two-week festival on Aug. 30.

A joint Italo-French production, "Quei Loro Incontri" (The Meeting) by Italian-based Jean-Marie Straub and Daniel Huillet complete the home trio in competition at the 63rd edition of the world's oldest film festival.

Overall, Festival director Marco Muller unveiled an array of more than 60 features including Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center ", David Lynch's "Inland Empire", Spike Lee's "When The Leaves Broke", A requiem in Four Acts, Manoel de Oliveira's "Belle Toujours", Kenneth Branagh's "The Magic Flute", Ethan Hawke's "The Hottest Stage" and Douglas McGrath's "Infamous".

The festival will be spiced up with several African and Asian offerings but the bulk will come from the United States (13), Italy (10) and Japan (six).

Twenty-seven countries will be represented, up from 18 last year.

"We hope to do even better than last year when our films went on to dominate the awards season, including 23 Oscars," said Muller, who viewed more than 1,400 films before settling on the 62 picks.

Source: Xinhua