July 29 (Bloomberg) -- Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke and Debra Winger, three screen sex symbols of the 1980s, will make a comeback at the Venice Film Festival, the world's oldest.

Basinger -- who starred with Rourke 22 years ago in ``9 1/2 Weeks'' -- plays Charlize Theron's mother in Guillermo Arriaga's ``The Burning Plain,'' one of 21 shortlisted films announced by organizers at a Rome press conference today. Rourke, who took up professional boxing in the 1990s, is the lead actor in Darren Aronofsky's ``The Wrestler,'' also in line for the top Golden Lion award.

The festival, which runs from Aug. 27 through Sept. 6 on Venice's Lido island, opens with the world premiere of Joel and Ethan Coen's ``Burn After Reading,'' with George Clooney, Brad Pitt and John Malkovich. The movie, which isn't in competition, is a crime comedy about two gym employees who find a CIA agent's memoirs on a disk and try to sell it.

``Cinema is also entertainment, and this year, we try to remember that,'' said Marco Muller, the festival's director, who said more U.S. films would have been eligible for selection had there not been the 100-day strike by Hollywood film and television writers that ended in February.

German director Wim Wenders will head the seven-member jury, which includes ``Rain Man'' actress Valeria Golino and ``The Blues Brothers'' director John Landis.

Oscar-Winning

Winger, who starred alongside Richard Gere in the 1982 ``An Officer and a Gentleman,'' plays in ``Rachel Getting Married'' by Jonathan Demme, Oscar-winning director of ``The Silence of the Lambs.'' The family drama is about a young woman out of rehab (Anne Hathaway) who goes home for her sister's wedding.

Other highlights include Kathryn Bigelow's ``The Hurt Locker,'' about an elite bomb squad in Iraq, with Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce.

Japan's Takeshi Kitano (``Achilles and the Tortoise'') and animation master Hayao Miyazaki (``Ponyo on the Cliff'') are also in the competition.

French actress Juliette Binoche will star in Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami's out-of-competition ``Shirin.''

Italian films feature prominently at the festival, after ``Gomorra'' (by Matteo Garrone) and ``Il Divo'' (by Paolo Sorrentino) won awards at Cannes earlier this year. There are four home-grown productions in the running.

To contact the reporters on this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson in Rome at fjackson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 29, 2008 12:06 EDT