Hollywood heavyweights

Some of Hollywood's biggest names will be walking the red carpet on Venice's Lido island - and hoping it's a rehearsal for Oscar night.

Among potential prize contenders are Johnny Depp, all but unrecognizable as a Boston mobster in Scott Cooper's "Black Mass;" Eddie Redmayne transformed into a transgender woman in Tom Hooper's "The Danish Girl;" and Idris Elba as an African warlord in Cary Fukunaga's "Beasts of No Nation."

The combination of Tilda Swinton, Dakota Johnson and Ralph Fiennes could make waves in Luca Guadagnino's drama "A Bigger Splash," while Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult find love in a dangerous time in Drake Doremus' futuristic feature "Equals."

And last year's Venice hero, Keaton, returns alongside Mark Ruffalo and Stanley Tucci in Tom McCarthy's "Spotlight," about Boston Globe journalists investigating sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Global giants

Venice is offering up meaty fare from heavyweight global auteurs among the 21 films that Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron and his jury will consider for the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion.

Israel's Amos Gitai depicts the traumatic 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in "Rabin, The Last Day," while Russia's Aleksandr Sokurov - a previous Golden Lion winner - tells the story of the Louvre museum - and of Europe - in "Francofonia" and Italy's Marco Bellocchio bites into the vampire-themed "Blood of My Blood."

Among the quirkier-sounding offerings are Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson's animated feature "Anomalisa" and musician Laurie Anderson's canine-themed feature debut "Heart of a Dog."