Guillermo del Toro to compete for Golden Lion of Venice

The Mexican director Guillermo del Toro will compete in the 74th Venice Film Festival with his film "The shape of water."

In a press conference in Rome , the director of the "Mostra," Alberto Barbera , advanced that, in his opinion, "is the best work that del Toro has done in the last ten years ."

"The Shape of Water" chronicles the discovery of an anthropomorphic aquatic creature and features a cast with Sally Hawkings, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Octavia Spencer.

The Mexican filmmaker will compete with this work of romantic science fiction for the " Golden Lion " of the Venetian "Mostra," which will take place from August 30 to September 9.

He will compete in the Official Section with 20 other films by Darren Aronofsky ("Mother!",) George Clooney ("Suburbicon",) Xavier Legrand ("Jusqu'à la garde",) and Italian Paolo Virzì (“The Leisure Seeker”.)

Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei will present the documentary on immigration "Human Flow;" The Lebanese Ziad Doueiri , "L'Insulte;" the French Robert Guédiguian , "The villa;" the British Andrew Haigh , "Lean on Pete;" and the Tunisian Abdellatif Kechiche , "Canto Uno."

The American Paul Schrader is also present with "First reformed;" the Australian Warwick Thornton , with "Sweet country," and the American documentarist Frederick Wiseman with "Ex libris - The New York public library."

The opening film, also in competition and which will be screened on August 30 , will be "Downsizing" by Alexander Payne and starring Matt Damon.

The awards ceremony will take place on September 9 and will be presented by an international jury presided over by American actress Annette Bening.

It will also include Mexican director Michel Franco, Hungarian Ildikó Enyedi , British actress Rebecca Hall , French actress Anna Mouglalis , Italian actress Jasmine Trinca , Anglo-Australian critic David Stratton , British director Edgar Wright and filmmaker of Chinese origin Yonfan.

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