Clooney to get lifetime achievement award at Venice

The 83rd Venice Film Festival will kick off with a lifetime achievement award for George Clooney and a line-up featuring some of the biggest names in cinema.

The 65-year-old Hollywood star will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the opening ceremony on Wednesday night.

Actress Laura Dern will deliver the tribute. The two appeared together in Jay Kelly, which premiered in Venice last year.

The British director is known for films including Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire.

The film tells the story of how Rupert Murdoch and Larry Lamb transformed The Sun into a powerhouse of British tabloid journalism. It is one of 21 films competing for the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion.

Among the most eagerly awaited films is the premiere Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson as real-life journalist Chris Hansen.

Hansen's NBC series To Catch a Predator used hidden cameras to confront suspected sex offenders, turning the encounters into controversial television.

Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, meanwhile, play a married couple in Bunker, about an architect commissioned by a tech billionaire to build an underground refuge to ride out doomsday.

Over the festival's 11 days Liam and Noel Gallagher are also expected for the premiere of Oasis reunion documentary Don't Look Back in Anger.

The Gaza war will also feature prominently, with Naza, from two of the filmmakers behind the Oscar-winning No Other Land, screening at the festival.