The festival often serves as a launch for Hollywood films
Among the stars expected for the festival - which is older than Berlin or Cannes - are Nicole Kidman, Danny DeVito, Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman.
Nicole Kidman and Gene Hackman are among the stars expected for the 58th Venice film festival set to open Wednesday.
Organisers have pressed a cruise ship into service in order to cater for expected visitors to the festival which is part of summer-long Venice Biennale exhibitions and events.
This year's festival will feature two competitions for the first time - the Venice 58 for international full-length films and the New Cinema of the Present category.
In the Venice 58, Nicole Kidman's new film The Others will compete alongside Bully by Kids director Larry Clark and The Navigators directed by Ken Loach.
The jury that will select the winner of the Golden Lion on 8 September will be headed by Italian director Nanni Moretti whose latest film La Stanza del Figlio won the Cannes Festival's Palme d'Or in May.
Other jury members include author Amitav Gosh, director Taylor Hackford and actresses Cecilia Roth and Jeanne Balibar.
In the New Cinema of the Present category, 21 films will compete for the new Lion of the Year award.
This category includes Sandra Goldbacher's Me Without You from Britain and Werner Herzog's latest offering Invincible.
Organisers say the new category will include fringe films that run counter to current genres, providing innovation and creative originality.
Meanwhile the Venice 58 category will see the best and most radical of art films alongside the most original and innovative spectacular movies.
Films competing are Woody Allen's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Richard Linklater's Waking Life and Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence.
The 20 films in the international competition come from pain, Italy, France, Hong Kong, Mexico, the Netherlands, India, Romania, Brazil and the United States.
Other films competing during the 11-day festival include British director Geoff Dunbar's animated film Tuesday, featuring the voices of Dustin Hoffman and Paul McCartney, David Mamet's Heist and Woody Allen's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion.
The festival will also include a retrospective of the cinematic works of Polish director Andrzej Munk and Frenchman Guy Debord.
French film-maker Eric Rohmer will be awarded the Golden Lion lifetime achievement award.