Twenty-four films are vying for the coveted Golden Lion award in the main competition in Venice, which is abuzz with screenings, photo shoots, parties and red carpet glamour.

Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore's film spans three generations of joys and sorrows in a small Sicilian town. It was the first Italian film to open the festival in 20 years. Scored by veteran maestro Ennio Morricone, "Baaria" is reported to have cost 25 million euros ($36 million), making it one of Italy's most expensive movies ever.

Tornatore, whose 1988 movie "Cinema Paradiso" won a foreign film Oscar, said the story of a poor family living through the ups and downs of the last century was based in part on his own memories of life in Sicily. It was not an insular story, he said, but one of universal appeal.

Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee, the Oscar-winning director of "Brokeback Mountain," which won in Venice in 2005, chairs the jury at the festival.

But what would the prestigious festival be without American films - there are six in the main competition - and Hollywood stars posing on the red carpets? The list of those expected to appear reads like a Hollywood who's who: Matt Damon, Michael Moore, Nicolas Cage, George Clooney, Oliver Stone, Charlize Theron and Sylvester Stallone.

First-class program

Damon stars in "The Informant!," where he plays a crooked company whistleblower. Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story," a documentary attacking corporate greed, is competing as a hot favorite for the Golden Lion. In the past, the Oscar-winning Moore has targeted former US President George W. Bush, the US health care system and the gun lobby.

Clooney stars in "The Men Who Stare at Goats." The movie is about a journalist who stumbles across a US military unit in Iraq that uses paranormal powers. Cage appears in Werner Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," a remake of the 1992 movie.

Venice: the world's oldest film festival

With "A Single Man," Tom Ford, the 48-year-old former Gucci designer, debuts in Venice. His film is based on Christopher Isherwood's 1964 novel about a British professor in California mourning the recent death of his homosexual partner. It stars Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.

Two German movies are in the competition: Fatih Akin's "Soul Kitchen," about a run-down bar and its clientele; and video artist Shirin Neshat's "Women Without Men," a film that shows the fate of several women in Iran during the coup d'etat in 1953. Two other German movies are being shown in the framework of the "Orrizzonti" section.

Film festival director Marco Mueller was pleased with the line-up of films. Ahead of the kick-off, he said this year was just the kind of festival he had planned for.

db/Reuters/AP/dpa/EPD

Editor: Chuck Penfold