See who the stars expected at the Venice Film Festival are

By Francesca Pierleoni - On one side, the usual glamour, highlighted by Julia Roberts' red carpet debut at the Lido with Luca Guadagnino's "After the Hunt"; on the other, the mobilizations for Gaza. These are the two backdrops for the stars' participation in the 82nd Venice Film Festival, which begins this Wednesday (27).

And among the expected attendees at the exhibition, one confirmed absence has stood out in recent days: Israeli actress Gal Gadot, from Julian Schnabel's film "In the Hand of Dante." She was criticized by the artist group Venice4Palestine, which called on the Venice Biennale to withdraw its invitation to the Israeli actress and Gerard Butler, who stars in the same film, for supporting the "genocide" in the Gaza Strip.

In reality, Gadot was never about to go to the festival, perhaps also to avoid further controversy, while Butler seems to have decided to skip the show.

As for confirmations, the star-studded parade will include names like George Clooney , Laura Dern and Adam Sandler, from Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama "Jay Kelly," about a star's physical and emotional journey through Europe (with many stops in Italy).

Meanwhile, "Father Mother Sister Brother," an anthology comedy by Jim Jarmusch, is expected to bring together one of the most star-studded casts at the Venice Film Festival, with Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Tom Waits and Charlotte Rampling, while "Bugonia" renews the award-winning partnership between Oscar winners Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone, with the tragicomic story of the kidnapping of the CEO of a large company, mistaken for a dangerous alien.

Jude Law, in turn, brings to life Vladimir Putin in the midst of his rise to power in "The Wizard of the Kremlin," a film by Olivier Assayas inspired by a book of the same name by the Italian-Swiss writer Giuliano da Empoli, while Amanda Seyfried will arrive in Venice as an 18th-century preacher in "The Testament of Ann Lee," by Mona Fastvold.

Also expected are actors Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi, creator and creature, respectively, in Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein." Léa Seydoux and Tony Leung star in an intimate story in Ildikó Enyedi's "Silent Friend," and Dwayne Johnson, aka "The Rock," leaves the world of blockbusters to play former American wrestler Mark Kerr in Benny Safdie's "The Smashing Machine," which also stars Emily Blunt.

Meanwhile, Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson lead the race against time linked to a new nuclear threat in Kathryn Bigelow's "The House of Dynamite."

In the parallel sections, Al Pacino appears as the protagonist in two non-competition films: the thriller "Dead Man's Wire", by Gus Van Sant, and the aforementioned "In the Hand of Dante", which also features Oscar Isaac, Martin Scorsese, Jason Momoa, John Malkovich, Franco Nero and Sabrina Impacciatore.

The festival's closing film, the dystopian noir "Chien 51" by Cédric Jimenez, will bring together French cinema stars such as Gilles Lellouche, Adèle Exarchopoulos and Louis Garrel.