The 83rd Venice International Film Festival has kicked off in Italy. Two Japanese movies are among the contenders for the top Golden Lion award.
Actors and filmmakers walked the red carpet on Wednesday, the opening day for the event.
Actor George Clooney was awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
He said: “Movies don’t stop wars. They don’t lower inflation. They don’t fix elections, but they do do something remarkable.”
One of the Japanese movies competing for the top award is “Look Back,” directed by Koreeda Hirokazu.
The other is “Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?” directed by Tsukamoto Shinya.The Japanese title is “Nelson san, anata wa hito wo koroshimashitaka?”
“Look Back” is a live-action adaptation of Fujimoto Tatsuki’s manga of the same name. The story of growth and loss follows two girls brought together by their shared passion for drawing manga.
“Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?” chronicles a Vietnam War veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as he confronts his experience of killing people in the battlefield through dialogue with a psychiatrist.
Award winners are scheduled to be announced on Saturday, the final day of the festival.
The Venice International Film Festival is one of the world’s three major film festivals, alongside those in Cannes and Berlin.