Venice International Film Festival normally attracts the great and good of Hollywood as they descend on the Lido to promote their upcoming movies.

However this year told a different tale, as stars were unable to attend the 80th anniversary event due to ongoing acting strikes in the industry.

German model Toni Garrn was among one of the only stars to attend the festival’s opening on Wednesday evening, a night which would normally be overflowing with the biggest names in the business.

The model, 31, led the star-studded Red Carpet as she was among the first to arrive at the premiere for Edoardo De Angelis’ Comandante at Sala Grande.

Toni looked incredible in a strapless dress which was adorned in large square sequins all over, offering a stunning shimmering effect.

She simply accessorised her evening attire with a diamond choker, while otherwise keeping the attention on her eye-catching gown.

The German native wore her blonde locks swept up into a neat bun, while leaving some strands loose to frame her pretty features. 

The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world, with its 80th edition opening today.

The festival opens with the premiere of Italian World War Two film Comandante, directed by Edoardo De Angelis. The event will run until September 9 and closes with a Spanish-language Netflix drama Society of the Snow. 

The Festival takes place on the Venice Lido – the so-called beach of Venice – a thin barrier island in the Venetian Lagoon, which is a short boat trip from the main city of Venice. Unlike Venice itself, cars have access to the Lido.

The festival marks the start of the awards season and regularly throws up big favourites for the Oscars. Eight of the past 11 best director awards at the Oscars went to films that debuted at Venice.

There are several categories making up the official selection of films shown, the top being those competing for the coveted Golden Lion award. 

New films by directors including Bradley Cooper, Yorgos Lanthimos, David Fincher, Michael Mann, Sofia Coppola, Ava DuVernay and Ryusuke Hamaguchi will compete for the prestigious award.

Movie stars and directors traditionally enjoy travelling to the lagoon city to launch their films. However, this year will offer a bit less sparkle than usual because a Hollywood actors’ strike will prevent many stars from promoting their work here.

The festival’s artistic director Alberto Barbera is putting a brave face on the expected disruption and has managed to attract one of the strongest line-ups in recent years, defying dire predictions of a mass no-show by big studio productions.

‘We know that some talent will not be able to attend … But some others will come because they are working in the independent films. So everything is good. It looks very positive.’ 

Away from Venice’s picture-perfect canals, a sense of crisis pervades the movie-making business, with strikes by both the main U.S. actors and writers’ unions bringing much of the entertainment industry to a standstill. 

‘If the strikes last longer, it will have a huge, negative impact on the next (release) season and the awards season as well,’ Barbera said.

Nobody in Hollywood wants to be seen doing the wrong thing by the strikers and the whole film and TV industry has ground to a complete stop.

The writers union, the WGA, went on strike on May 2nd, and were followed by SAG-AFTRA, the actors union, on July 14th.

Ferrari actors (and writers) can attend with out breaking the strikes as the film has been given an exemption because it was made by an independent, Neon, not a studio.

The stars of the film Priscilla, about Priscilla Presley’s life, can also attend without breaking the strike as it was made in Canada.

Earlier this week it was confirmed that Priscilla has a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement which would allow cast including Jacob Elordi – who plays Elvis – to come. It’s not clear whether he will though.

Priscilla Presley, on whose 1985 memoir it is based, is expected to attend. She is an actress, herself, having appeared in Dallas and the Naked Gun films.

Most other stars have no option but to stay away. Bradley Cooper, who wrote, produced stars in and directed Maestro, about the conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, will not be in Venice to see possibly the defining film of his career premiere. It is by Netflix, who are a struck company.

A festival spokesman confirmed last month that he would not attend in solidarity with the strike by the actors union SAG-AFTRA.

The film Challengers, a tennis and three-somes drama starring Zendaya and Josh O’Connor, of The Crown, was going to open the festival but that dropped after the actor’s came on strike in July.

The prestige film Poor Things, an adaptation of a Frankenstein-esque gothic tale starring Emma Stone, will premiere at the festival but star Emma Stone and the rest of the cast will not be there.

Ferrari is a film by renowned director Michael Man and examines three months in the life of Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the car company. He has money trouble, is grieving his son who died, and has a child with his mistress – which is discovered by his wife.

The SAG-AFTRA strike is the latest of ongoing employee disputes in Hollywood.

The action has brought the industry to a virtual standstill, forcing many film and TV productions to shut down, and marks the first time in more than 60 years that both actors and writers have gone o