Close up: Festival time as Venice and Toronto announce line-ups

The big story It's festival time as the official announcements of the Venice and Toronto line-ups confirm rumours that had been sloshing around the internet for weeks. Venice leaked via Variety on Tuesday (officially confirmed just this afternoon). Toronto's big catches drip ... dripped out via an organiser's Twitter account later the same day. Tiny, tenacious Telluride's still watertight , but it definitely won't have the world premieres of George Clooney's The Ides of March , Roman Polanski's Carnage or Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (all playing at Venice), and better not have the first showings of The Descendants (Alexander Payne), The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies) or Moneyball (Bennett Miller), if it doesn't want several angry Canadian festival programmers hiking up to its gates. Venice runs August 31-September 10, Toronto September 8-18. Guardian.co.uk/film will be on the Lido and at the Bell Lightbox, bringing you the news and reviews of the best at each fest. In other news • George Lucas defeated over Star Wars stormtrooper replicas • Zorba the Greek director Michael Cacoyannis dies • Todd Phillips buys rights to tale of stoner arms dealers • Steven Spielberg and Gwyneth Paltrow fall foul of Italian beach laws • Polanski and Cronenberg premieres set for Venice film festival • Luc Besson's Aung San Suu Kyi biopic set to premiere at Toronto film festival • James Franco misses out on Twilight vampire role • Fans riot at Los Angeles film premiere • Pinewood bankrolls Simon Pegg's Fantastic Fear of Everything On the blog • David Cox: One Life peddles one big lie • Comic-Con 2011: Tintin brings out Steven Spielberg's motional side • US box office: Captain America grabs a lot of green from the red, white and blue • Flick teaser: Paranormal Activity 3's demon redecoration job • UK box office: Harry Potter doesn't need the box-office resurrection stone • Poster notes: Paul Owen picks over the bones of Paddy Considine's Tyrannosaur • Toronto and Venice: a tale of two remarkably civilised film festivals • Stuart Heritage: Will Sex and Zen be the saviour of 3D? • Henry Barnes: Telluride's tiny film festival sets the Oscar agenda Multimedia • It's 60 years since The Lavender Hill Mob saw Henry Holland (Alec Guinness) and Alfred Pendlebury (Stanley Holloway) bust the bank and have a lark with the loot. Catherine Shoard (accompanied by Ealing expert Richard Dacre) 'opped on a vintage bone shaker and headed out to the east end to analyse the scene of the crime . The classic comedy is back in cinemas now, so make heist! Go see it before it's locked up for good. Other site highlights • As the trailer for The Ides of March enters the primaries, Henry Barnes assesses George Clooney's bid to be the next great fictional US president . Clooney wrote, produced, directed and stars in the political thriller, but can his aspirant governor give The West Wing's Josiah Bartlet a presidential run for his money? Coming up online tomorrow • Andrew Pulver will be taking a magnifying glass to Arrietty (Studio Ghibli's re-telling of Mary Norton's The Borrowers), Danny Leigh will be ticking off the less than right-on aspects of critically-lauded 70s flicks and Adam Dawtrey will be figuring out the recoupment rates of recent UK Film Council productions. Plus Peter Bradshaw hunkers down with BBC drama The Hour and a copy of Broadcast News and tries to spot the differences … Coming up in the paper • Film and Music sees Joe Queenan logging on to @BatesMotel to re-imagine the plot of Hollywood's classic crime capers in the age of Twitter, Facebook, Google and Wikileaks ... Twilight director Chris Weitz reveals how his own family inspired his new film about illegal immigration ... Catherine Shoard takes director Gianni di Gregorio's seemingly cheery demeanour with a pinch of salt ... and Peter Bradshaw tears 13 stripes and 47 stars off Marvel's latest superhero blockbuster Captain America: The First Avenger . Sign up for our film masterclasses Join us to explore the wonder of cinematography at our second Guardian film masterclass . Film 2011's Danny Leigh (joined by the Guardian's Xan Brooks and Variety's Leslie Felperin) will be on hand to take you through a two-day course on the hidden art of mise en scene, the importance of a good script and the craft of editing. Also available: the Producer's foundation certificate from independent film body Raindance. Learn how to take your project from business plan to funded film in five weeks. Want more? • Follow @guardianfilm on Twitter • Like our Facebook page . João Pedro liked and would like you to like too. --- #12cabins12vacancies ---