George Clooney and Sofia Coppola returning to Venice Film Festival

ROME (AP) — Sofia Coppola's comic drama "Somewhere," and Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" will make their world premieres at the Venice Film Festival, among 22 titles that organizers announced Thursday will vie for the prestigious Golden Lion.

Festival director Marco Mueller emphasized the young age of the directors competing at the festival's 67th edition — averaging 47, the youngest ever.

Despite their age, many of the young directors come to Venice experienced. Oscar-winner Coppola, 39, will showcase her movie starring Stephen Dorff as a bad-boy actor struggling through life. Aronofsky, 41, returns to Venice with a psychological thriller two years after winning the top prize for his drama "The Wrestler."

"Black Swan" stars Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Winona Ryder.

Bringing up the average is 78-year-old U.S. director Monte Hellman, who will be premiering his indie feature "Road to Nowhere," about a young writer who gets caught up in a crime.

"The average age drops to 45.52 without him," Mueller quipped.

Only one director is making his debut, Ascanio Celestini with "La Pecora Nera" (Black Sheep), a play that has been redone for film. That compares with five directorial debuts last year.

Also showing is Richard J. Lewis' adaptation of Mordecai Richler's comic novel "Barney's Version," starring Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman, and U.S. indie director Kelly Reichardt with the period drama "Meek's Cutoff."

German director Tom Tykwer will premier his movie "Drei" and Tunisian-born director Abdellatif Kechiche will be back in Venice with "Venus Noire." The French director premiered "La Graine et Le Mulet" (The Secret of the Grain) at Venice in 2007.

Lido regular and part-time Italian resident George Clooney isn't expected again this year. Aronofsky's movie got tagged for the opening slot, and the U.S. release of Clooney's new film, "The American," was already scheduled for Sept. 1 — the opening day of the festival.

"We put together an opening night of which we are very proud," Mueller said.

In the end, Clooney's picture, a thriller shot largely in the quake-stricken region of Abruzzo, is absent from the festival lineup.

In all, 79 world premieres will be shown at Venice from Sept. 1-11.

The Affleck brothers — Ben and Casey — both will be in Venice, but on separate projects. Ben Affleck is premiering "The Town," out of competition, his second film as director after "Gone Baby Gone." He also stars in the movie as a bank robber who has fallen for a bank manager he met on a heist.

Casey Affleck will be showing his documentary "I Am Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix."

Director Quentin Tarantino is heading the jury that will award the festival's top prize on Sept. 11, and director John Woo will be awarded a Golden Lion for his career.

Four films will be competing separately for the festival's second 3-D award. And Venice this year has revamped the Horizons competition to focus more on experimental film, which Mueller said was a reflection of risk-taking resulting from the economic crisis.