US director Sofia Coppola on set. [Global Times]

As one of the world's oldest film festivals, the 67th Venice International Film Festival, set to take place from September 1-11, is focusing on a new generation of independent and young filmmakers. Altogether 24 films will vie for the top Golden Lion award, with the directors' average age only 47. Quentin Tarantino, also 47, will head the jury to pick the winner.

"Venice is getting younger," film festival director Marco Mueller was quoted by AFP as saying, joking that "if we retired Monte Hellman (78-year-old US director with film Road to Nowhere), the average age of Competition directors would go down to 45."

The 41-year-old US director Darren Aronofsky will open the film festival with Black Swan, a psychological thriller about the cutthroat New York ballet world starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel and Winona Ryder. He won the top prize at Venice in 2008 with The Wrestler starring Mickey Rourke.

Other notable directors in the under-50 crowd who will compete for the Golden Lion are Oscar-winner Sofia Coppola, 39 and Vincent Gallo, 49, both from the US and 43-year-old Francois Ozon of France.

Coppola, who won an Oscar for best original screenplay with Lost in Translation, offers a dramatic comedy Somewhere, set in Hollywood and produced by her serial Oscar-winning father Francis Ford Coppola. The film tells the story of a jaded actor and his estranged young daughter.

Gallo's Promises Written on Water is a somber tale about a girl with a terminal illness, while Ozon cast veteran French actors Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu in his comedy Potiche.

US makes a comeback

After a few lower-profile years in Venice, American films are back in force with six in Competition and five screening Out of Competition.

Besides Aronofsky, Hellman, Coppola and Gallo, Kelly Reichardt with Meek's Cutoff starring Michelle Williams and Julian Schnabel with Miral (US, France, Italy and Israel co-production) starring Willem Dafoe, will also be competing for the Golden Lion on behalf of the US.

Ben Affleck's crime drama The Town, which he directed and stars in and Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones' A Letter to Elia have been selected as Out of Competition films. In the Competition category, 23 films have been selected and announced, with a surprise title to be revealed on September 6. Besides the dominating US films, the lineup also includes four Italian films and a mix of titles from Japan, China, Russia, Greece and Chile.

Among the four Italian candidates is Saverio Costanzo's adaptation of the best-selling Paolo Giordano novel The Solitude of Prime Numbers. Three French entries include Black Venus by Tunisian-born Abdellatif Kechiche, whose The Secret of the Grain won the Special Jury Prize in Venice in 2007.

International focus

The festival will also screen 79 full-length world premieres from 34 countries including a work from the Dominican Republic for the first time, about its neighbor Haiti.

According to organizers, mirroring the more sober atmosphere in the industry after the financial crisis, the films screening this year are generally shorter than in the past.

US director Tarantino's international jury also includes fellow directors Arnaud Desplechin of France, Guillermo Arriaga of Mexico and Italian Gabriele Salvatores. They will pick the winners for the top prize Golden Lion for Best Film, Volpi Cups for Best Actor and Actress and the Special Jury Prize, among other awards.

Three Asian films are in the running for films in Competition, two from Japan: 13 Assassins by Miike Takashi and Norwegian Wood by Tran Anh Hung and one from China, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame by Tsui Hark.

Alongside Mueller and Tarantino's long devotion to Chinese films, local filmmakers will also manage to make their presence felt at this year's film festival, with John Woo scheduled to receive his Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen by Andrew Lau will open Out of Competition and Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan is on the jury for the "Luigi De Laurentiis" Venice Award for a Debut Film. Several Chinese titles are also screening Out of Competition.

"It is interesting to see that the varieties of Chinese films in Competition and Out of Competition are thriller, horror, documentary and even cartoon," film reporter Zhang Lin who is covering the event for the fourth time in Venice told the Global Times.