As the grandest and oldest of music festivals, it's fair to say that every now and again Venice needs to blow away a few cobwebs.
Without the glamour of Cannes or the indie credentials of Sundance Venice was in need of refreshing, at least in the words of returning artistic director Alberto Barbera.
According to The Telegraph he said: "Venice is like a grand old lady, but she is in need of being freshened up.”
Stealing the show this year was 'The Master', the much anticipated comeback film from 'There Will Be Blood' director Paul Thomas Anderson.
'The Master's' Pgilip Seymour Hoffman (Photo: Newspix.nl/WENN)
'There Will Be Blood' was widely regarded as possibly the finest film of the 2000s, and his new movie has been showered with praise by critics, with many regarding it as a shoo-in for Venice's highest award The Golden Lion.
'The Master' is believed to be loosely based on the early days of the Church of Scientology and stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a quasi religious figure with striking similarities to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
Yet it is not only 'The Master' that has spiced up 2012's Venice, with gangster movie 'The Iceman', featuring Winona Ryder and Boardwalk Empire's Michael Shannon, it is the biopic of mob hitman Richard Kuklinski.
But Venice wasn't just about high art showing inbetween the gondolas, with Harmony Korine's sex and drugs infused caper 'Spring Breakers', which saw stars head to Venice who were more Disney Channel than Grand Canal.
Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Rachel Korine and Ashley Benson, the stars of 'Spring Breakers' (Photo:Newspix.nl/WENN)
Starring Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens it follows young students as their drawn into a world of drink, drugs and parties that has a dark side.
Also in attendance were male stars Shia LaBeouf and Zac Effron, promoting their respective movies 'The Company You Keep' and 'At Any Price'.
The Festival opened with 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist', Mira Nair's take on the clash of civilastions between America and Islam and the misconceptions that fuel it.
And it seems that this strong start was continued throughout the festival as many of the autumn's must see movies got their first outing.
PHOTOS: The stars come out for Venice
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