73rd Venice Film Festival kicks off

The cast and crew of "La La Land"-opening film of this year's Venice Film Festival. The 73rd edition of the world's oldest film festival is now underway [Photo: Xinhua]

The 73rd edition of the world's oldest film festival is now underway.

This year's Venice Film Festival has kicked off with a gala ceremony and the world premiere of the film "La La Land."

The musical, a dramatic comedy, stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling.

It's one of 20 U.S. and international films vying for the Golden Lion, which will be awarded on September 10th.

British filmmaker Same Mendes, this year's jury president at Venice, says all the films competing this year are worth a look.

"In my opinion, all of the movies we are going to see over the next two weeks are winners already."

The 'American Beauty' director will lead a 9-person jury, which includes Chinese actress and director Zhao Wei.

She's now the 5th Chinese person to sit on the jury in Venice, following Maggie Cheung, Gong Li, Xu Feng and Chen Chong.

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