The Venice Film Festival wasn’t always the unofficial start of awards season. For many years, the festival was regarded as a high-minded and only moderately star-studded showcase for the latest and greatest in art cinema. But a little over a decade ago, Venice decided to embrace its fortunate timing — just ahead of Toronto and largely concurrent with Telluride on the calendar — to become a bigger, more Oscar-friendly event. Today, Venice is a kind of hybrid: a lineup filled with premieres of big (often American) titles, alongside independent, artier films. Those of us attending try to strike a balance between seeing the important movies and the adventurous ones, the behemoths and the sleepers. Here are some of the most exciting and promising films screening at this year’s festival.

Bugoni

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