VENICE, Italy (AP) — George Clooney plays a famous actor on a soul-searching journey and Emma Stone makes a turn as the CEO of a pharmaceutical company in two of the films premiering at the Venice Film Festival Thursday evening.

Clooney and Stone are among the many Hollywood actors, including Adam Sandler, Laura Dern and Jesse Plemons, expected to grace the red carpet with the world premieres of Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly” and Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Bugonia.” Both films are vying for the coveted Golden Lion prize, the winner of which often goes on to get Oscar nominations and even wins.

Lanthimos is a Venice veteran, having just recently won the festival’s top prize for “Poor Things,” which would go on to win several Oscars, including best actress for Stone. The new film, “Bugonia,” is

See Full Page