Frida to open Venice film festival

Frida, the eagerly anticipated screen biography of legendary bisexual artist Frida Kahlo, will open the 59th Venice International Film Festival on August 29. The movie, starring Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas, is directed by Julie Taymor, whose credits include the stage version of The Lion King and the visionary film Titus, based on Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. Other films included in the festival's two competitions will be Stephen Daldry's The Hours, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from out author Michael Cunningham, and Lilja 4-Ever, from Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson (whose earlier films include the gay-inclusive Show Me Love and Together.)