Stars are flocking to Italy for the Venice Film Festival as it starts to get underway with a new director at the helm.

Alberto Barbera has taken over from the respected outgoing director Marco Mueller.

His competition line-up of 18 movies has won early praise from critics, and Venice has launched a small market to make the notoriously expensive trip there more commercially attractive to studio bosses.

“Without question, I think Barbera has put together a strong festival in terms of programming,” Variety film critic Jay Weissberg said.

“He’s also looking to see where the problems in the infrastructure lies but that’s a sort of thing that’s going to take some time.

“He’s got a lot that he has to work with, however the festival looks very strong at the moment particularly from a critics point of view, I think we are in for a very interesting week and a half.”

One of the most talked-about films this year is likely to be The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson’s story about a religious cult bearing similarities to Scientology.

The There Will Be Blood director has said the role of Lancaster Dodd, played by Dustin Hoffman, was partly inspired by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology.

There is also plenty of interest in director Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, which has a young cast including Wizards Of Waverly Place star Selena Gomez.

And Spike Lee’s Michael Jackson documentary, BAD 25, is premiering at the event.

Barbera’s main task was to lure a selection of movies that ensures A-list star power, media buzz and a global spread of low-budget, high-quality cinema.

There is no George Clooney, a Venice regular, and the festival will not feature heavyweights such as Madonna and Angelina Jolie.

But Barbara has resigned himself to the fact that 2012 will be “star-light” and plans to work towards building a more sustainable A-list presence on the Lido.

“I would love to have a lot of stars on the red carpet. But it’s a matter of timing,” he said.

“This year we couldn’t get any films from the majors for different reasons but I’m sure that the majors will come again next year. I have excellent relationship with all the majors.”

Liev Schreiber was one of the first actors to arrive, along with his partner Naomi Watts.

The two pulled into the Lido by boat ready for his opening night film The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

Schreiber stars alongside Riz Ahmed and Kate Hudson in Mira Nair’s movie, which follows a Pakistan immigrant in the United States who sees his life overturned by 9/11.

Robert Redford and Julie Christie will represent the older generation.

Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix are also set to attend and will be among the big draws doing the rounds of interviews and photo-shoots to promote their movies.

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