The Venice Film Festival wraps up Saturday with one winner to be awarded the prestigious Golden Lion prize out of an eclectic roster of exceptional international films.
From "The Brutalist" by US director Brady Corbet tracking the tortured artistic path of a Holocaust survivor to "A Room Next Door," the end-of-life female friendship picture from veteran Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar, the choices are many -- with no one film considered a frontrunner.
Stars have swarmed onto the glamorous Lido this year for the 81st edition of the world's oldest film festival, whose winners often go on to Oscar glory.
Venice's red carpet this season has been graced by the likes of Lady Gaga, starring with Joaquin Phoenix in the sequel to Todd Phillips' antihero "Joker" film, or George Clooney and Brad Pitt, whose action comedy "Wolfs", to be streamed on Apple TV+, premiered out of competition.
Pundits have already singled out "The Brutalist" and "Queer" -- an adaptation directed by Italy's Luca Guadagnino of the short novel by Beat Generation writer William Burroughs -- as films to keep an eye on, both for their cinematic ambition and the lead performances by actors Adrien Brody and Daniel Craig, respectively.
Angelina Jolie is in contention for a best actress award for her tour-de-force performance as opera diva Maria Callas in Pablo Larrain's "Maria", as is Nicole Kidman for "Babygirl," an erotic thriller whose graphic sex scenes required an onscreen fearlessness the actress called "freeing".
The jury headed by French actress Isabelle Huppert also has its work cut out to choose a best actor, with both Brody in "The Brutalist" and Craig in "Queer" among the festival's most transformative.
Five-time James Bond actor Craig is already being predicted as a top Oscar contender next March for his role as William Lee, a lonely, heavy-drinking gay writer in 1940s Mexico City, whose unrequited love for a young man sends him on an anguished and drug-fuelled road trip through South America.
Craig said the role allowed him a full gamut of experiences and emotions.
"If I was writing myself a part and wanted to tick off the things I wanted to do, this would fulfil all of them," Craig told journalists before the film's premiere.
- Voices heard -
Films at the festival -- which saw American actress Sigourney Weaver and Australian director Peter Weir accept lifetime achievement awards -- did not shy away from difficult subject matter, whether contemporary or historical.
Abortion ("April"), white supremacy ("The Order"), the Mafia ("Sicilian Letters") and enforced disappearances and killings during Brazil's military dictatorship ("I'm Still Here") were among the subjects of films competing for the Golden Lion.
Several films explored war and its crushing repercussions, whether documentaries on the war in Ukraine or the conflict between Israel and Palestinians, while two Italian features centred on the two World Wars of the last century.
Among the most remarkable was "Russians at War" from Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova, who went behind the lines of the Ukraine war with Russian soldiers.
"Russian soldiers are not someone whose voices are heard," Trofimova said during a press conference.
"This is my attempt to see through the fog of war and to see people as people."