Ghouls, Gotham, and Gaga Kick Off Venice Film Festival

The Venice Film Festival kicks off with a devilish debut of Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” sequel, drawing a surge of star power for the glitzy competition on the sun-splashed Lido.

Lady Gaga, George Clooney, Daniel Craig, Julianne Moore, and Brad Pitt are among the A-listers expected to grace Italy’s watery city. Known as “La Mostra,” the festival is the world’s longest-running movie celebration.

The celebrity arrivals, via water taxi from across the Venetian lagoon, promise to add big-budget Hollywood flair following a low-key edition last year due to the Hollywood writers’ strike.

The event begins with the out-of-competition world premiere of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” which features Michael Keaton as a chaos-inducing ghoul alongside Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, and Monica Bellucci.

The fantastical journey into the afterlife is a project “from my heart,” says Burton, an acclaimed director known for his affinity for the strange and macabre.

“In recent years, I became a bit disillusioned with the movie industry,” Burton revealed to journalists before the opening.

“For me, this movie reenergized me, bringing me back to the things I love doing, the way I love doing them, with the people I love working with,” he added.

The festival shifts tone with Angelina Jolie portraying Maria Callas in “Maria,” Pablo Larrain’s biopic about the opera diva’s tormented life. This film is one of 21 films vying for the coveted Golden Lion prize to be awarded on September 7.

Another eagerly awaited film is the dark psychological thriller “Joker: Folie a Deux.” This sequel to Todd Phillips’ 2019 Venice-winning film brings back Joaquin Phoenix, who won an Oscar for his role. This time, he is paired with Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn.

Daniel Craig takes on a role in “Queer” by Italy’s Luca Guadagnino, an adaptation of the William Burroughs novel set in 1940s Mexico City. Australian director Justin Kurzel’s “The Order” features Jude Law as an FBI agent investigating white supremacy in the Pacific Northwest.

Spanish director Pedro Almodovar returns with his first full-length film in English, “The Room Next Door,” featuring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.

Nicole Kidman stars with Antonio Banderas in the erotic thriller “Babygirl” from Dutch director Halina Reijn, centered on a powerful woman CEO who embarks on a torrid affair with her much younger male intern.

Another notable entry is Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” featuring Adrien Brody as a Hungarian Jewish architect who emigrates to America post-World War II and embarks on a life-changing project.

The festival also hosts independent films, including documentaries that explore challenging subjects. Two documentaries focus on the Ukraine war: “Songs of Slow Burning Earth” by Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba, and “Russians at War,” in which Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova was embedded with a Russian army battalion in eastern Ukraine.

Israeli director Amos Gitai’s “Why War” is based on correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud about war, while Goran Hugo Olsson presents “Israel Palestine on Swedish Television 1958-1989,” a painful documentary compiled from 30 years of public broadcasting archives.

With “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Burton fans get to revisit the madcap world of his 1988 cult classic 36 years later.

The “Edward Scissorhands” director updates the quirky family drama, centered on Lydia, played by Ryder. This time, Lydia’s teenage daughter (Jenna Ortega) discovers a mystery in the attic, unintentionally unleashing mayhem on the Deetz household.

When asked about the possibility of another sequel featuring Beetlejuice, Burton joked, “Well, let’s do the math.”

“It took 35 years to make this sequel. I’ll be over 100 for a third. I guess it’s possible—thanks to medical science—but I don’t think so,” he quipped.