Venice film festival 2012: day one – in pictures

Red all about it … a decorator puts the final touches to some flowerpots Photograph: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images

Fresh from Essex, a lion greets a little girl Photograph: DANIEL DAL ZENNARO/EPA

Alberto Barbera, artistic director of the 69th edition of the Venice film festival Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP

Samantha Morton, serving on the jury this year, arrives in town Photograph: Action Press / Rex Features/Action Press / Rex Features

Reality and Gomorrah director Matteo Garrone blends into the curtains Photograph: Venturelli/WireImage

Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber arrive at the Hotel Excelsior Photograph: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

Is that Gazza helping Kate Hudson ashore for the press conference for The Reluctant Fundamentalist? Photograph: Joel Ryan/AP

Safely disembarked, Hudson and splattered Schreiber, stars of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, clock the cameras Photograph: Graham Whitby Boot/Allstar/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

Hudson and Schreiber pose with fellow Reluctant Fundamentalists: writer Mohsin Hamid, actor Riz Ahmed, director Mira Nair, and actor/producer Lydia Dean Pilcher Photograph: Joel Ryan/AP

Italian musician Enzo Avitabile and US film-maker Jonathan Demme spot something interesting during the photocall for Enzo Avitabile Music Life Photograph: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images