Venice 2008 lines up.

By Alison Willmore on 07/29/2008

The 65th Venice Film Festival announced its line-up today -- among the juicy offerings are the new Darren Aronofsky film "The Wrestler," with Mickey Rourke playing Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a retired pro wrestler struggling to get back into the ring; Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq drama "The Hurt Locker"; Takeshi Kitano's comedy "Achilles and the Tortoise"; the new Miyazaki movie "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea," which is already in theaters in Japan; Jia Zhang-ke cinematographer Nelson Yu Lik-wai's São Paulo-set multi-ethnic thriller "Plastic City"; and Jonathan Demme's "Rachel Getting Married," in which Anne Hathaway plays a girl fresh out of rehab.

Premiering out of competition, as already announced, will be the Coen brothers "Burn After Reading," along with Claire Denis' "35 Rhums," Abbas Kiarostami's "Shirin" and Agnés Varda's documentary "Les Plages d'Agnès." "Chop Shop" director Ramin Bahrani's "Goodbye Solo" and Ross McElwee's "In Paraguay" will play in the sidebar.

Full competition line-up after the jump:

Darren Aronofsky: The Wrestler - USA, 105' Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood

Guillermo Arriaga: The Burning Plain - USA, 147'
Charlize Theron, Kim Basinger, Joaquim de Almeida

Pupi Avati: Il papà di Giovanna - Italy, 104'
Silvio Orlando, Alba Rohrwacher, Francesca Neri, Ezio Greggio, Serena Grandi

Marco Bechis: BirdWatchers - Italy, 108'
Claudio Santamaria, Alicélia Batista Cabreira, Chiara Caselli, Abrisio Da Silva Pedro

Patrick Mario Bernard, Pierre Trividic: L'Autre - France, 97'
Dominique Blanc, Cyril Gueï, Peter Bonke, Christèle Tual

Kathryn Bigelow: The Hurt Locker - USA, 131'
Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, David Morse, Jeremy Renner

Pappi Corsicato: Il seme della discordia - Italy, 85'
Caterina Murino, Alessandro Gassman, Martina Stella, Michele Venitucci, Isabella Ferrari

Jonathan Demme: Rachel Getting Married - USA, 116'
Anne Hathaway, Debra Winger, Rosemarie Dewitt, Bill Irwin, Tunde Adebimpe

Haile Gerima: Teza - Ethiopia / Germany / France, 140'
Aron Arefe, Abiye Tedla, Takelech Beyene

Aleksey German Jr.: Bumažnyj soldat (Paper Soldier) - Russia, 116'
Chulpan Khamatova, Merab Ninidze, Anastasya Shevelyova

Semih Kaplanoglu: Süt - Turkey / France / Germany, 102'
Melih Selcuk, Basak Koklukaya

Takeshi Kitano: Akires to kame (Achilles and the Tortoise) - Japan, 119'
Beat Takeshi, Kanako Higuchi, Yurei Yanagi, Kumiko Aso

Hayao Miyazaki: Gake no ue no Ponyo (Ponyo on Cliff by the Sea) - Japan, 101'
animation

Amir Naderi: Vegas: Based on a True Story - USA, 102'
Mark Greenfield, Nancy La Scala, Zach Thomas

Mamoru Oshii: The Sky Crawlers - Japan, 122'
animation

Ferzan Özpetek: Un giorno perfetto - Italy, 95'
Isabella Ferrari, Valerio Mastandrea, Valerio Binasco, Nicole Grimaudo, Stefania Sandrelli

Christian Petzold: Jerichow - Germany, 93'
Nina Hoss, Benno Fürmann, Hilmi Sözer

Barbet Schroeder: Inju, la Bête dans l'ombre - France, 105'
Magimel Benoît, Minamoto Lika, Shun Sugata, Maurice Bénichou, Ryo Ishibashi

Werner Schroeter: Nuit de chien - France / Germany / Portugal, 110'
Pascal Greggory, Bruno Todeschini, Amira Casar, Jean-François Stevenin

Tariq Teguia: Gabbla (Inland) - Algeria / France, 140'
Kader Affak, Ines Rose Djakou, Ahmed Benaïssa, Fethi Ghares, Kouider Medjahed, Djalila Kadi-Hanifi

YU Lik-wai: Dangkou (Plastic City) - Brazil / China / Hong Kong/China / Japan, 118'
Joe Odagiri, Anthony Wong, Huang Yi, Jeff Chen

[Photo: Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler," Protozoa Pictures/Saturn Films, 2008]

+ 65th Venice Film Festival Line-up (LaBiennale.org)