Hollywood royalty, in the shape of George Clooney, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, will share the limelight with a 19th-century British monarch at this year's Venice film festival, which kicks off on Wednesday.

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Hollywood royalty and British monarchy to rub shoulders in Venice

August 29, 2017 - 13:00

Hollywood royalty, in the shape of George Clooney, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, will share the limelight with a 19th-century British monarch at this year's Venice film festival, which kicks off on Wednesday.

Hollywood royalty, in the shape of George Clooney, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, will share the limelight with a 19th-century British monarch at this year’s Venice film festival. — AFP Photo
Viet Nam News

VENICE — Hollywood royalty, in the shape of George Clooney, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, will share the limelight with a 19th-century British monarch at this year’s Venice film festival, which kicks off on Wednesday.

The world premiere of Victoria & Abdul, Stephen Frears’ big-screen adaptation of the true story of the elderly Queen Victoria’s friendship with an Indian clerk, is set to be a highlight of the 74th edition of the world’s oldest cinema festival.

The 2017 festival gets under way with Oscar-winning US director Alexander Payne’s sci-fi comedy Downsizing in an opening slot that, in recent years, has been a trampoline to future international success for the films involved.

The beachside bash runs until September 9, when the winner of the Golden Lion for the best of the 21 films entered in the main competition, and a string of other prizes, will be announced.

Silver screen legends Redford, 81, and Fonda, 79, are due on the Lido, the sandbar island that hosts the festival, on Friday to receive lifetime achievement awards, before an out-of-competition showing of their latest film, Our Souls at Night.

Produced by Redford for Netflix and directed by India’s Ritesh Batra, the film sees the one-time sex symbols play elderly widowed neighbours pursuing a friendship that becomes increasingly intimate.

British director Frears is to be honoured on Sunday for his innovative contribution to cinema, ahead of the premiere of Victoria & Abdul, in which Judi Dench stars opposite Bollywood actor Ali Fazal. AFP

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