The 83rd Venice Film Festival will open on Wednesday on the Lido, bringing Hollywood stars, awards hopefuls and documentaries examining figures and conflicts including Elon Musk, Russia and Gaza to the annual film festival.

Noel and Liam Gallagher, Robert Pattinson, Rooney Mara, George Clooney and Penélope Cruz are among the stars expected to attend the festival, with several films also entering the early Oscar conversation.

Yet this year's festival has a different mood, with much of the attention likely to fall on subjects beyond the usual Hollywood glamour and awards-season speculation

One of the festival's most talked-about films is Alex Gibney's nearly four-hour documentary about Elon Musk, which has been in production for almost four years.

Gibney initially hesitated to take on the project but was persuaded by a close friend that Musk would make a worthy portrait of 21st-century power. The project began before the 2024 presidential campaign and the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Musk has described the documentary as a “hit piece” on social media. Gibney responded: “How would you know?”

Speaking to The Associated Press, Gibney said he had initially been something of an admirer of Musk and was also a Tesla owner. He had hoped to speak to Musk for the film, but Musk declined.

“Ultimately, he didn’t want to talk to me,” Gibney said. “But then you start, you know, digging into the facts and you follow them where they lead.”

Gibney said the filmmakers interviewed hundreds of people on and off the record while compiling a portrait of the Tesla and SpaceX chief. He said he was particularly struck by the number of people who appeared reluctant to speak about Musk on camera.

“I thought, wow, for such a big and powerful person, that seems awfully weak,” Gibney said.

The documentary, he added, is a “dark and dangerous topic” but also a “fun ride”.

The festival will also feature “My Undesirable Friends: Part II - Exile”, in which Julia Loktev continues her portrait of independent Russian journalists following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The film follows a group of young journalists who fled Russia rather than stop reporting on the war or face imprisonment.

“You see this group of young, very young journalists who’ve just fled their country, like, on a few hours’ notice,” Loktev said.

She said the film examines how exile changes over time, with the journalists' displacement becoming indefinite.

The nearly six-hour documentary “NAZA”, a late addition to the competition, will also focus attention on Gaza. It comes from two of the filmmakers behind the Oscar-winning “No Other Land”.

Unlike last year, no large-scale protests are planned. However, Venice4Palestine has called on the festival to suspend agreements with entities and institutions linked to the Israeli government and has asked for the Palestinian flag to be flown throughout the festival.

Venice is also expected to play a role in the awards season, with the festival often serving as an early platform for films that later receive Oscar nominations.

Martin McDonagh's “Wild Horse Nine”, starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA agents in the 1970s, is among the films viewed as a potential awards contender.

“The Father” filmmaker Florian Zeller returns with “Bunker”, a psychological thriller starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem. Danny Boyle's “Ink” explores a turning point in tabloid media, while Lance Oppenheim's “Primetime” examines reality television culture in the early 2000s and features Robert Pattinson.

Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda will debut “Look Back”, about two small-town girls who aspire to become manga artists. Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong will present “Possible Love”, which explores themes of labour and freedom through two married couples.

Venice arrives after a strong summer for Hollywood, despite Cannes featuring fewer major blockbuster films. The reigning Best Picture winner, “One Battle After Another”, also skipped the festival circuit entirely.

The festival is also facing renewed criticism over the representation of women behind the camera.

Only one woman, Danish-Egyptian filmmaker May El-Toukhy, is included in the main competition. The same situation occurred in 2018, prompting the festival to pledge that at least half of its competition films would be directed by women by 2020. That target has yet to be achieved.

The issue comes as Maggie Gyllenhaal, whose debut feature “The Lost Daughter” won Venice's Best Screenplay award in 2021, presides over the festival jury.

The jury also includes Kaouther Ben Hania, whose “The Voice of Hind Rajab” won the Silver Lion last year, when six films directed by women competed.

Only seven women have won the Golden Lion. Among them is Laura Poitras, who won for “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” and returns this year with “They’re Here”, a short film co-directed with Rachel Lauren Mueller about US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis.

Gyllenhaal will also present her short film “Flesh Impact”, about Marilyn Monroe.

Outside the main competition, documentaries from Loktev, Barbara Kopple and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi will feature, while several women filmmakers are represented in the Horizons sections, including Saoirse Ronan with a short film.

Venice Days, an independent sidebar, will open on Wednesday with Hungarian filmmaker Lili Horvát's English-language debut, “My Notes on Mars”. The film stars Rupert Friend and Mackenzie Davis as a couple whose marriage is in trouble after the wife, a scientist, mysteriously disappears and returns on the day of her memorial service.

“The story argues for great love,” Horvát said. “Yet it shows the eternal limits of knowing the person we are in love with.”

More than half of the Venice Days selections are directed by women, including films from Mona Fastvold and Claire Denis.

“It’s good to be in a progressive section,” Horvát said.