At the Mostra: Ryan Gosling’s First Man , in which he plays astronaut Neil Armstrong, opened the world’s oldest film festival in Venice on Wednesday. Reuters reported that artistic director Alberto Barbera has rebuilt the reputation of the Mostra — the Italian name for the festival — by screening a host of Hollywood arthouse pictures such as Gravity and La La Land that went from Venice to Oscars glory. In all, 21 films are competing for the Golden Lion, Venice’s top prize, which will be announced on September 8. Netflix, which snubbed Cannes because of French rules that ban simultaneous streaming of films shown in theatres, is screening six films. These include Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma and the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs . The only woman director in the main competition is Australian Jennifer Kent with a grisly drama, The Nightingale .
