Organizers of the 65th Venice Film Festival announced on Tuesday the lineup for this year's event and unfortunately for the U.S., it won't be having many movies screened, Variety reported.

It seems that Hollywood writers' strike is still haunting the movie industry as the film festival will show 20 Italian films to 10 American this year, since fewer U.S. productions were ready due to last year's writers' strike.
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"One of the effects of the strike is that so many releases of movies that would have been right for Venice have been pushed by the studios to December, or even later," director Marco Mueller said at a packed press conference in Rome's Excelsior Hotel on the Via Veneto.

"Very few (studios) were willing to run the risk of piracy by world premiering a movie so many months before its theatrical release," added the Venice topper. Last year, U.S. and British films dominated the lineup, with nearly half of the films in the main competition.

The race for the Golden Lion includes Johnathan Demme's "Rachel is Getting Married" and Kathryn Bigelow's "Hurt Locker," and will feature five Hollywood productions, four from Italy and three each from France and Japan.

Mueller noted that the "powerful presence" by four Italian films reflects "the current excellent moment," for Italian cinema, alluding to the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where Italian films took home two of the top honors.

Italian films in this year's competition include Italian-Turkish director Ferzan Ozpetek's "Un Giorno Perfetto," featuring the events of one day on a group of people, and Pupi Avati with "Il Papa' di Giovanna," the story of a father dealing with his daughter's horrible crime.

All but two of the 21 titles will be world premieres. The exceptions are two Japanese animated films that opened at home for the busy summer season.

"21 Grams" writer Guillermo Arriaga, will make his directing debut with "The Burning Plain," starring Kim Bassinger and Charlize Theron as a mother and daughter trying to bond. Arriaga is the only first-time director with a film in competition.

The festival jury will be headed by German director Wim Wenders, whose work includes 1999's "Buena Vista Social Club."

This year's festival will mark Brad Pitt's first appearance since he and partner Angelina Jolie welcomed twins Knox and Vivienne. Brad Pitt and George Clooney are expected to attend since their movie "Burn After Reading" opens the festival on August 27th. The movie is about two gym employees who find a CIA agent's memoirs on a disk and try to sell it.

Actress Anne Hathaway will also be in attendance to promote her upcoming film "Rachel Getting Married," a comedy that focuses on an ex-model who returns home for her sister's wedding after spending 10 years in-and-out of rehab.

Others expected to make an appearance include Marisa Tomei, Mickey Rourke and Evan Rachel Wood for "The Wrestler" and Ralph Fiennes, who stars in the Iraq war drama "The Hurt Locker."