Films vying for Venice film festival's Golden Lion

Twenty-one films are competing for the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice film festival, which kicks off Wednesday and runs until September 7.

Here are the films:

- "La Verite" (The Truth), by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda -- opening film

- "The Perfect Candidate", by Saudi Arabian director Haifaa al-Mansour

- "About Endlessness", by Swedish director Roy Andersson

- "Wasp Network", by French director Olivier Assayas

- "Marriage Story", by US director Noah Baumbach

- "Guest of Honour", by Canadian director Atom Egoyan

- "Ad Astra", by US director James Gray

- "A Herdade", by Portuguese director Tiago Guedes

- "Gloria Mundi", by French director Robert Guediguian

- "Waiting For The Barbarians", by Colombian director Ciro Guerra

- "Ema", by Chilean director Pablo Larrain

- "Lan xin da ju yuan" (Saturday Fiction) by Chinese director Lou Ye

- "Martin Eden", by Italian director Pietro Marcello

- "La Mafia Non e Piu Quella Di Una Volta" (The Mafia Is No Longer What It Used To Be), by Italian director Franco Maresco

- "The Painted Bird", by Czech director Vaclav Marhoul

- "Il Sindaco Del Rione Sanita" (The Mayor of Rione Sanita), by Italian director Mario Martone

- "Babyteeth", by Australian director Shannon Murphy

- "Joker", by US director Todd Phillips

- "J'accuse" (An Officer and a Spy), French-Polish director Roman Polanski

- "The Laundromat", by US director Steven Soderbergh

- "No.7 Cherry Lane", by Hong Kong director Yonfan