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La pecora nera or if you prefer, The Black Sheep is the feature debut from Ascanio Celestini, which is In Competition for the Golden Lion at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.

Yes, we said it’s a comedy, but they also describe it as an “inventive, funny and tragic” movie. Check out the La pecora nera synopsis and see why…

“The psychiatric hospital is an apartment block of saints. The poor crazy inmates tucked into their Chinese sheets – industrially manufactured shrouds – are saints, the nun lit up like an ex-voto by her bedside lamp is a saint.

And the doctor is the saintliest of all, he is the head of the saints, he is Jesus Christ.”

This is how Nicola describes his 35 years in the “electric asylum” and in his messed-up head reality and fantasy merge, producing unexpected illuminations.

Nicola was born in the 1960s, “the fabulous sixties”, and...

Venice -- Politics reared its head on the opening days of the Venice Film Festival, with a buzz surrounding Thursday's in-competition screening of Julian Schabel's "Miral," which examines the Palestinian conflict through the eyes of a girl raised in an orphanage, and the news that Iranian director Jafar Panahi was denied the right to exit his country for the screening of his short film "The Accordion."

Earlier, on Wednesday, Italian politicals played a cameo role when the Secretary to the Italian government's Council of Ministers, Gianni Letta, was reportedly booed loudly by the crowd as he entered the opening ceremony of the 67th edition of the festival. Letta is a key figure in the ruling government coalition in Italy currently embroiled in controversy.

Letta later presented a special medal to Italian composer Armando Trovajoli, who turned 93 Thursday. That move was greeted with applause.

Panahi, who was jailed in Iran earlier...

Are you guys ready for the oldest film festival in the world? Yeah, sure you are! Who’s crazy enough to miss all that glamour, great movies, and well-known faces? Guess nobody!

This year’s Venice Film Festival runs from September 1- 11th and some great titles will compete for Leone d’Oro, or if you prefer Golden Lion, indeed!

Just in case you don’t trust us, check out a list of all the films playing in competition:

In Competition

Black Swan, Opening Night Film (dir. Darren Aronofsky – U.S.) Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder

La Pecora Nera, (dir. Ascanio Celestini – Italy) Ascanio Celestini, Giorgio Tirabassi, Maya Sansa

Somewhere, (dir. Sofia Coppola – U.S.) Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Benicio Del Toro, Michelle Monaghan, Laura Chiatti, Simona Ventura

Happy Few, (dir. Antony Cordier – France) Marina Fois, Elodie Bouchez, Roschdy Zem, Nicolas Duvauchelle

The Solitude of Prime Numbers,...

The full lineup for this year's Venice film festival has been announced – but there's a no show for the new Terrence Malick

The full programme for this year's Venice film festival has been announced and, as predicted, many film-makers whose films weren't quite ready for Cannes will debut on the Lido. Somewhere, a Hollywood-set drama from Sofia Coppola, is amongst the premieres, likewise Vincent Gallo's Brown Bunny sequel, Promises Written in Water, apparently a black-and-white tale of a girl with a terminal illness.

Julian Schnabel's Miral, which follows Hind Husseini's efforts to set up an orphanage in Jerusalem after the 1948 partition of Palestine, also finds a home. However, Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, which many had predicted would screen at the festival, is not on the list; nor that for the Toronto film festival, which directly follows Venice.

Other hotly tipped titles include Meek's Cutoff, Kelly Reichardt...

Yesterday the official line-up for Toronto Film Festival was unveiled and, today Venice Film Festival have revealed the twenty-two films that will be vying for the Golden Lion award at this year’s 67th ceremony. The festival, which will run from September 1 – 11, will open with Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller, Black Swan, and close with Julie Taymor adaptation of Shakespeare’s acclaimed play, The Tempest.

Competing for the Golden Lion this year are:

Somewhere, directed by Sofia Coppola Meek’s Cutoff, directed by Kelly Reichardt Three, directed by Tom Tykwer 13 Assassins, directed by Takashi Miike Happy Few, directed by Antony Cordier Barney’s Version, directed by Richard J. Lewis Black Swan, directed by Darren Aronofsky Promises Written in Water, directed by Vincent Gallo Black Venus, directed by Abdellatif Kechiche Noi Credevamo, directed by Mario Martone La Pecora Nera, directed by Ascanio Celestini Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame,...

The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of... festival season. Two days ago Toronto announced a big chunk of its line-up, and now the Venice Film Festival has unveiled its own. Joining Darren Aronofsky ballerina drama "Black Swan," announced earlier as the opening night film, are Sofia Coppola's Hollywood saga "Somewhere" (trailer); Takashi Miike's samurai tale "13 Assassins" (trailer); "Meek's Cutoff," Kelly Reichardt's new film, once again starring Michelle Williams; Vincent Gallo's long-awaited follow-up to "The Brown Bunny" "Promises Made In Water," reportedly a 16-millimeter black-and-white tale of a girl with a terminal illness; "Road to Nowhere," a thriller from Monte Hellman (!); and "Three," the latest from "Run, Lola, Run"'s Tom Tykwer, about how the two halves of a middle-aged couple fall in love with the same man.

Out of competition, the Affleck brothers will screen Ben's "The Town" and Casey's Joaquin Phoenix mockumentary,...

New movies from Sofia Coppola, Darren Aronofsky, Vincent Gallo and Julian Schnabel will be slugging it out on the Lido. This year’s Venice Film Festival will take place September 1-11. Twenty two films will be competing for the Golden Lion. Among the name European and Asian directors are Germany’s Tom Tykwer and Japanese directors Takashi Miike and Anh Hung Tran. Terrance Malick’s The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, was expected to be In Competition too. Venice says that one more title will be added to the line-up on September 6. Movies screening Out of Competition include Robert Rodriquez’s Machete, Ben Affleck’s The Town and his brother Casey Affleck’s Joaquin Phoenix documentary I’m Still Here. The Competition 13 Assassins, Takashi Miike, Japan Attenberg, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece Barney’s Version, Richard J. Lewis, Canada/Italy Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky, USA Black Venus,...

The line-up for the 67th Venice Film Festival has finally been announced and we've handily posted the runners and riders below...

The Italian cinematic shindig, which runs from September 1-11 and features the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo Arriaga, Arnaud Desplechin, Danny Elfman, Luca Guadagnino and Gabriele Salvatores on the competition jury, has pulled out all the stops this year with some very exciting flicks.

Top on our list of must-see movies includes Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, Sofia Coppola's Somewhere, Vincent Gallo's Promises Written In Water and Anh Hung Tran's Murasaki adaptation Norwegian Wood.

The films to be shown at the 67th Venice Film Festival are...

Black Swan, directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel.

La Pecora Nera, directed by Ascanio Celestini and starring Ascanio Celestini, Giorgio Tirabassi and Maya Sansa

Somewhere, directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Stephen Dorff,...

Knowing Quentin Tarantino's appreciation for films that are "out there": if I had to do some really early predictions here, I'd say that the Gold and Silver Lion front-runners are in Alex De La Iglesia's bizarro fantasy film A Sad Trumpet Ballad, Pablo Larrain's Post Mortem or Athina Rachel Tsangari's Attenberg (a filmmaker we recently profiled in our American New Wave 25 series - she spent more than a decade in Austin's film scene). I'd also add put Abdellatif Kechiche's Black Venus high up on any awards list, especially the Lido - it's a film I've been pegging for Venice since the film went into production. Added to Aronofsky's Black Swan, the U.S is repped by Monte Hellman and his comeback film, Road to Nowhere, Julian Schnabel's Miral, indie female helmers Kelly Reichardt (Meek's Cutoff) and Sofia Coppola (Meek’s Cutoff), and the Coppola-...