Cannes has La Croisette and the world premieres and the yachts and the red carpet mishegoss, but Venice is no slouch when it comes to excellent directors and exciting premieres (and oh yeah, the parties). This year's line-up has plenty to offer cinephiles from around the world. And for you betting types, take note that Abel Ferrara and Werner Herzog will both be there; Herzog will be showing his "re-imagining" of Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, which so incensed Ferrara that he wished dire bodily harm upon Herzog and star Nicolas Cage.

I'm also particularly excited about Alex Cox showing Repo Chick, a sequel to his fabulous 1984 film Repo Man. Other super-cool stuff includes Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! with Matt Damon and his creepy mustache, Grant Heslov's The Men Who Stare at Goats, starring George Clooney, and [REC 2], the sequel to the Spanish horror film from Jaume Balaguero. Michael Moore with also be there with his new film, Capitalism: A Love Story. And audiences will finally get a look at the long-awaited Cormac McCarthy adaptation, The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen.

Ang Lee, who himself has won two Golden Lions at prior Venice festivals, is heading up the jury.

The full list is after the jump. Let us know what you think about the line-up and what you're eager to see.

66TH ANNUAL VENICE FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP COMPETITION
36 vues du Pic Saint Loup, Jacques Rivette (France)
Accident, Cheang Pou-Soi (China-Hong Kong)
Baaria, Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy) – Opening Film
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Werner Herzog (U.S.)
Between Two Worlds, Vimukthi Jayasundara (Sri Lanka)
Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore (U.S.)
La Doppia Ora, Giuseppe Capotondi (Italy)
Il Grande Sogno, Michele Placido (Italy)
Lebanon, Samuel Maoz (Israel)
Life During Wartime, Todd Solondz (U.S.)
Lo Spazio Bianco, Francesca Comencini (Italy)
Lourdes, Jessica Hausner (Austria)
Mr. Nobody, Jaco van Dormael (France)
Persecution, Patrice Chereau (France)
Prince of Tears, Yonfan (Hong Kong)
The Road, John Hillcoat (U.S.)
A Single Man, Tom Ford (U.S.)
Soul Kitchen, Fatih Akin (Germany)
Survival of the Dead, George Romero (U.S.)
Tetsuo The Bullet Man, Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan)
The Traveller, Ahmed Maher (Egypt)
White Material, Claire Denis (France)
Women Without Men, Shirin Neshat (Germany)

OUT OF COMPETITION
Anni Luce, Francesco Maselli (Italy)
Chengdu, I Love You, Fruit Chan, Cui Jian (China) – Closing Film
The Hole, Joe Dante (U.S.)
The Informant!, Steven Soderbergh (U.S.)
The Men Who Stare at Goats, Grant Heslov (U.S.)
Napoli Napoli Napoli, Abel Ferrara (Italy)
L'oro di Cuba, Giuliano Montaldo (Italy)
Prove per una tragedia Siciliana, John Turturro, Roman Paska (Italy)
REC 2, Jaume Balaguero, Paco Plaza (Spain)
Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story, Yousry Nasrallah (Egypt)
South of the Border, Oliver Stone (U.S.)
Yona Yona Penguin, Rintaro (Japan)


MIDNIGHT MOVIES
Gulaal, Anurag Kashyap (India)
Dev D, Anurag Kashyap (India)
Brooklyn's Finest, Antoine Fuqua (U.S.)
Delhi-6, Rakeysh Omprakash (India)
Valhalla Rising, Nicolas Winding Refn (Denmark)

GOLDEN LION FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT 2009
JOHN LASSETER AND THE DISNEY/PIXAR DIRECTORS
Toy Story 3-D (New Version), John Lasseter (U.S.)
Toy Story 2-D (New Version), John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon (U.S.)

HORIZONS
Francesca, Bobby Paunescu (Romania) – Opening Film
One-Zero, Kamla Abou Zekri (Egypt)
Buried Secrets, Raja Amari (Tunisia)
Tender Parasites, Christian Becker and Oliver Schwabe (Germany)
Adrift, Bui Thac Chuyen (Vietnam)
Crush, Petr Buslov, Aleksei German Jr., Borisd Khlebnikov, Kirill Serebrennikov, Ivan Vrypayev (Russia)
Repo Chick, Alex Cox (U.S.)
Engkwentro, Pepe Diokno (Philippines)
The Man's Woman and Other Stories, Amit Dutta (India)
Paraiso, Hector Galvez (Peru)
Io sono l'amore, Luca Guadagnino (Italy)
Cow, Guan Hu (China)
Judge, Liu Jie (China)
Pepperminta, Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland)
Tris di donne e abiti nunziali, Martina Gedeck (Italy)
Insolacao, Daniela Thomas and Felipe Hirsch (Brazil)
1428, Du Haibin (China)
I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You, Marcelo Gomes and Karim Ainouz (Brazil)
Once Upon a Time Proletarian: 12 Tales of a Country, Guo Xiaolu (China)
Villalobos, Romuald Karmakar (Germany)
Il colore delle parole, Marco Simon Puccioni (Italy)
The One All Alone, Frank Scheffer (The Netherlands)
Toto, Peter Schreiner (Austria)

HORIZONS EVENTS

PROGRAM 1
The Death of Pentheus, Philip Haas (U.S.)
Faces of Soul, Gina Kim (U.S.)
La Boheme, Werner Herzog (U.K.)
Mudanza, Pere Portabella (Spain)

PROGRAM 2
Deserto Rosa – Luigi Ghirri, Elisabetta Sgarbi (Italy)
Reading Book of Blockade, Aleksander Sokurov (Russia)
Armando Testa – Povero ma moderno, Pappi Corsicato
La Danse – Le Ballet de l'Opera de Paris, Fredrick Wiseman (U.S.) (In collaboration with Dance Biennale)
Hugo en Afrique, Stefano Knuchel (Switzerland)
Via della Croce, Serena Nono (Italy)

CONTROCAMPO ITALIANO ­– (NEW ITALIAN CINEMA TRENDS SIDEBAR)
Poeti, Toni D'Angelo
Negli occhi, Francesco del Grosso
Il compleanno, Daniele Anzellotti, Marco Filiberti
Dieci Inverni, Valerio Mieli
Cosmonauta, Susanna Nicchiarelli
Hollywood sul Tevere, Marco Spagnoli
Il Piccolo, Maurizio Zaccaro

CONTROCAMPO ITALIANO EVENTS
Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani

CONTROCAMPO/RETROSPECTIVE EVENTS
Lola, Giulio Questi
Hotel Courbet, Tinto Brass