Hollywood superstar Nicole Kidman is to open Rome's eagerly awaited new film festival with her portrayal of iconic US photographer Diane Arbus.
In announcing the news on Friday, the festival quoted Oscar winner Kidman as saying she had "a great affinity" with Italy and was "particularly proud to christen this important event."
Kidman will unveil the Arbus film, Fur, at the inaugural gala on October 13.
She tracks the period when Arbus broke with her fur-trading family and began to carve out a niche in cultural history by counterpoising celebrity snaps with pictures of cross-dressers, street people and the mentally ill. The film, in which Robert Downey Jr plays the mask-wearing guru who takes her into New York's freakish underbelly, is directed by Steven Shainberg of Secretary fame.
After her suicide in 1971 Arbus became the first American photographer to be exhibited by the Venice Biennale, the art foundation that oversees the Venice festival, the world's oldest film competition which has a wary eye on the Roman newcomer.
Just two years ago Kidman headlined at Venice.
Film industry experts say the two fests will vie for stars and premieres. Rome, coming just a month after its rival, could steal some of Venice's thunder, they say. Aside from the Arbus pic, Rome will see two other world premieres, by India's Mira Nair and Italy's Paolo Virzi.
Nair's The Namesake, based on a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jhumpa Lahiri, describes the challenges faced by an Indian family trying to blend into American life without leaving their old ways behind. Virzi's latest film N, starring Monica Bellucci and Daniel Auteuil, tells of Napoleon's hostile librarian on Elba who ends up transcribing the great man's memoirs after growing to see the human side of the legend.
Among the films competing for the festival's top prize, the latest announcements are Francesca Comencini's A Casa Nostra (Chez Nous) with Valeria Golino, and Otar Iosseliani's Jardins en Automne (Gardens in Autumn) with Michel Piccoli. The debut of Oscar winner Giuseppe Tornatore's mystery-shrouded La Sconosciuta (The Unknown Woman) - his first film since 2000's feast for Bellucci fans, Malena - is still in doubt.
By contrast, the pre-festival rumour mill has definitely stopped whispering about Woody Allen's latest opus, Scoop.
As well as Kidman and Bellucci, the festival will play host to a galaxy of stars including Sir Sean Connery, who is to receive Rome's first career achievement award. The festival runs at the new 'City of Music' Auditorium between October 13 and October 21, featuring around 80 movies.
Rome's movie buff mayor, Walter Veltroni, has denied ambitions to challenge Venice, stressing that Rome's focus will be different - wider and less arty - than its venerable cousin. But the lagoon city, which will host the 63rd edition of its festival in September, probably has good reason to be
wary.
Aside from the issue of facilities - Venice's pale incomparison with the Auditorium designed by iconic architectRenzo Piano - the Eternal City has special appeal because it has always played a much bigger role in the filmmaking world. Many Italian and Hollywood classics were set in the
capital, such as Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita and William Wyler's 1953 romance, Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.
Rome's legendary Cinecitta' Studios are where Fellini and other maestros like Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica produced their best work during the post-war golden age of Italian cinema.
The studios and the city continue to play a starring role in the industry.
Martin Scorsese shot Gangs of New York at Cinecitta' and Mel Gibson filmed parts of The Passion of the Christ there, while Ocean's Twelve and Mission Impossible III are among the movies Rome has recently provided backdrops for. Therefore, some cinema experts believe that, if the
capital's festival takes off, producers may prefer to present their wares here rather than in Venice.
What's more, the controversies and organization problems that have overshadowed Venice at times in recent years could make it vulnerable to a glamorous upstart. For example, Italy's own Roberto Benigni - the director of the Oscar-winning Life Is Beautiful - presented his last movie The Tiger and the Snow in Toronto, not Venice, last year.
Venice has tried to shrug off its elitist image by billing blockbusters in recent years - including 23 Oscar winners in 2005.
But it is still dogged by logistical woes like overbooked showing rooms.
Two years ago Al Pacino famously failed to find a place to see his own film.
Denis Greenan - (ANSA) - Rome, August 25
