MILAN — There’s no doubt fashion will play a big role in the upcoming edition of the Venice International Film Festival, running Aug. 27 to Sept. 6.

Not only is the event expected to serve major red carpet momentary, but a documentary on Marc Jacobs directed by no less than Sofia Coppola is to be presented as part of the out-of-competition section of the event.

Named “Marc by Sofia,” the 97-minute film will retrace the designer’s work and the long-standing friendship between the two and promises to feature plenty of archival footage, including those tracing to the 1994 guerrilla-style sidewalk fashion show Coppola and Spike Jonze staged in New York outside the Marc Jacobs show venue for the brand X-girl by Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and stylist Daisy Von Furth.

The “Marc by Sofia” project will flank other out-of-competition documentaries, including “Broken English” dedicated to the late Marianne Faithfull. Both projects were revealed on Tuesday, when the festival’s organizers unveiled the 82 edition’s full program, which left both movie fans and fashion lovers with high expectations in light of the much-anticipated titles that will fill the schedule.

Leading directors ranging from Guillermo del Toro, Yorgos Lanthimos, Gus Van Sant and Jim Jarmusch to Kathryn Bigelow, Paolo Sorrentino and Luca Guadagnino are all slated to touch base at Venice’s landmark Lido flanked by the respective star-packed casts and more. These will include A-list names such as Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Al Pacino, Idris Elba, Emma Stone, Emily Blunt, Laura Dern, Adam Driver, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield and Chloë Sevigny, just to cite a few.

As revealed earlier this month, the event will open with the world premiere of “La Grazia,” the new movie directed by Academy Award-winning director Paolo Sorrentino, whose synopsis is kept under wraps but promises to center on a love story set in Italy.

The film will be among the 21 titles competing at the festival, running against other major motion pictures. These will include del Toro’s much-awaited adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein” starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz and Mia Goth, among others. Incidentally, a documentary on the Mexican director titled “Sangre del Toro” will also screen out-of-competition. 

“Jay Kelly” by Noah Baumbach and written with Greta Gerwig will likely bring to the red carpet leading actor Clooney along with his castmates Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Riley Keough, Isla Fisher, Josh Hamilton and Alba Rohrwacher, to name a few.

Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Greta Lee and Jared Harris are expected to walk the red carpet of Bigelow’s new movie “A House of Dynamite,” while Blanchett, Driver, Tom Waits, Charlotte Rampling, Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat are part of the stellar cast of Jarmusch’s film “Father Mother Sister Brother.”

Other key titles will comprise Lanthimos’ new movie “Bugonia” starring once again Stone alongside Jesse Plemons and Alicia Silverstone; “The Wizard of the Kremlin” directed by Olivier Assayas and starring Jude Law, Alicia Vikander, Jeffrey Wright, Paul Dano with a flash cameo by French writer Emmanuel Carrère, and “The Smashing Machine” directed by Benny Safdie an seeing Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in the leading roles. 

Other names expected in Venice will include Amanda Seyfried who stars in “The Testament of Ann Lee” directed by Mona Fastvold, as well as Léa Seydoux and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, featured in “Silent Friend” by Ildikó Enyedi.

Out-of-competition movie premieres promise to serve major red carpet moments, too. Guadagnino’s new film “After the Hunt” is likely to draw to the Lagoon most of its star-packed cast, including Roberts, Edebiri, Garfield and Sevigny. Ditto for “In the Hand of Dante” directed by Julian Schnabel and starring Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese and Jason Momoa, among others. 

Al Pacino also appears in Van Sant’s thriller “Dead Man’s Wire” alongside Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery and Colman Domingo, who will additionally host the annual Venice amfAR gala on Aug. 31, as reported. Mads Mikkelsen will return to Venice as part of the cast of “The Last Viking” directed by Anders Thomas Jensen; while the likes of Adèle Exarchopoulos, Louis Garrel, Gilles Lellouche and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi are part of the cast of “Chien 51” by Cédric Jimenez.

Other sections of the festival include the “Orizzonti” division, which will premiere movies including “Rose of Nevada” by Mark Jenkin with George MacKay and Callum Turner; “Mother” by Teona Strugar Mitevska with Noomi Rapace playing Mother Teresa, and “Barrio Triste,” the first movie of music video director Stillz, who has worked with the likes of Rosalía and Bad Bunny, with the latter expected to appear in the film.

Willem Dafoe, a regular in Venice as he’s also the artistic director of the theater department of the Venice Biennale for the 2025-26 term, stars in both “The Souffleur” by Gastón Solnicki and “Late Fame” by Kent Jones alongside Greta Lee. 

Shailene Woodley and Ben McKenzie are part of the cast of “Motor City” directed by Potsy Ponciroli. This is one of the eight titles in the “Spotlight” section supported by Armani Beauty — one of the longtime sponsors of the event alongside Cartier, Campari and Thélios — and where the public is to award the best movie.

As for the main competition, an international jury will be tasked to select and hand out the awards at the closing ceremony, including the Golden Lion for best film that last year went to Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door” starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore.

This edition’s jury will be chaired by American director Alexander Payne and comprise of six other international personalities: Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres, Chinese actress Zhao Tao and directors Maura Delpero, Stéphane Brizé, Cristian Mungiu and Mohammad Rasoulof.

As always, side fashion events are expected to add to the busy agendas of movie stars and directors. Miu Miu usually stages conversations with actors in addition to the screening of the latest installment of its Women’s Tales project of short films, while the likes of Armani Beauty and Chanel have set a tradition for hosting glamourous gatherings after dusk.