Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci is serving as the president of the main competition jury at this year's 70th Venice Film Festival.

The Academy Award-winning director has opened up about what he expects from filmmakers this year, "I hope that the surprises that we will have from the festival this year will be beyond my hopes. Risk brings with it, as we all know, strength. Certainly it is the courage to dare."

Filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron's new 3D drama-thriller Gravity kicked open this year's festival.

Hollywood stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, who graced the opening red carpet, appear in the film as astronauts who are set adrift in space following an accident in which their space shuttle is hit by debris.

Twenty films are competing for this year's Golden Lion award, the most coveted award at the world's oldest film festival.

Contenders for the honor include Tsai Ming-liang's film Stray Dogs and Terry Gilliam's The Zero Theorem.

The festival runs until September 7.

(CRIENGLISH.com August 29, 2013)