Venice Film Festival 2013: A view from the red carpet

The premiere of George Clooney and Sandra Bullock’s new space film Gravity opened the Venice Film Festival, with a host of stars taking to the red carpet to celebrate.

Click here or on 'view gallery' for more pictures from the red carpet

Nicolas Cage, Matt Damon, Zac Efron and Scarlett Johansson are among the other stars expected over the next 10 days at the festival, which celebrates its 70th year.

Twenty films, including three British entries and five from the US are in the running for the Golden Lion trophy, which will be awarded on 7 September.

Britain’s hopes of winning the trophy rest on Terry Gilliam’s The Zero Theorem starring Matt Damon and Christopher Waltz, Stephen Frears’ Philomena starring Judi Dench and Jonathan Glazer’s Scotland-set scifi Under the Skin starring Scarlett Johansson.

Bookmaker Paddy Power has ranked Philomena as second favourite to win the Golden Lion, behind Stray Dogs - the only Chinese language film in the competition.

For the first time, two documentaries are up for the Golden Lion: Errol Morris's The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld, and Sacro GRA, a film about Rome's ring road.

Special awards will be presented this year to US director William Friedkin, Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda and the Italian writer-director Ettore Scola.