George Clooney and Emma Stone lead Venice Film Festival's race for the Golden Lion

George Clooney takes on the role of a famous actor on a soul-searching journey, while Emma Stone steps into the shoes of a pharmaceutical CEO in two highly anticipated films debuting at the Venice Film Festival Thursday evening. Clooney and Stone join a star-studded lineup—including Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, and Jesse Plemons—on the red carpet for the world premieres of Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly and Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia. Both films are in contention for the prestigious Golden Lion, an award that often propels winners toward Oscar buzz and even victories.

Lanthimos is a Venice veteran, having just recently won the festival’s top prize for “Poor Things,” which would go on to win several Oscars, including best actress for Stone. The new film, “Bugonia,” is an English-language adaptation of a South Korean film, about two conspiracy-minded men (one of which is played by Plemons) who believe Stone’s character is an alien and kidnap her.

Baumbach, too, was on the Lido recently with his Don DeLillo adaptation “White Noise,” which went on to a less decorated awards run. “Jay Kelly,” he said in his director’s statement, “is about a man looking back at his life and reflecting on the choices, the sacrifices, the successes, the mistakes he’s made.”

The film features a large ensemble cast, including Sandler as the actor’s manager, Baumbach’s wife and oft-collaborator Greta Gerwig, Dern, Billy Crudup and Riley Keough. Like “White Noise,” “Jay Kelly” is a Netflix-produced film. After taking a year off from the festival, the streaming giant is back with three major films playing in competition, including Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” and Kathryn Bigelow’s political thriller “A House of Dynamite.”