The Venice Film Festival's independently run Giornate Degli Autori section, known as Venice Days, has announced a lineup weighted towards female directors and stories, opening with Hungarian director Lili Horváth's first English-language feature, "My Notes on Mars," starring Mackenzie Davis and Rupert Friend. The choice underscores the section's stated focus this year on works by women and on stories exploring female experience, regardless of who directed them.

This year's selection totals 25 world premieres, 14 of them directed by women. "My Notes on Mars," about an astrophysicist who vanishes and later reappears with no memory of her life except her Mars research, is one of 10 titles in the Venice Days competition, which will be judged by an all-female jury led by Catalan director Carla Simón alongside Hania Mroue and Sara Fgaier. Other competition entries include Kuba Dorabialski's "Agata the Writer" with Mia Wasikowska, Nicola Sorcinelli's "Balcanica" starring Matilda De Angelis, Damilola Orimogunje's "Dear Ajayi" and Robert Guédiguian's "A Woman Today," while special events include Francesca Archibugi's documentary on feminist critic Carla Lonzi and Ashgan El-Hamus's debut "Al Baraneya."