VENICE:

George Clooney plays a famous actor on a soul-searching journey and Emma Stone makes a turn as the CEO of a pharmaceutical company in two of the films premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday evening.

Clooney and Stone are among the many Hollywood actors, including Adam Sandler, Laura Dern and Jesse Plemons, to grace the red carpet with the world premieres of Noah Baumbach's "Jay Kelly" and Yorgos Lanthimos's "Bugonia."

Both films are vying for the coveted Golden Lion prize, the winner of which often goes on to get Oscar nominations and even wins. Lanthimos is a Venice veteran, having just recently won the festival's top prize for "Poor Things."

The new film, "Bugonia," is an English-language adaptation of a South Korean film, about two conspiracy-minded men — one of w

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