Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, which stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, will open the 73rd Venice Film Festival. The film, an ode to Hollywood’s golden age of musicals, will world premiere on August 31 in competition.

The film is produced by Lionsgate in partnership with Black Label Media, Gilbert Films, Impostor Pictures, Marc Platt Productions. Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, Gary Gilbert and Marc Platt are producers.

“La La Land is a film that does not merely reinvent the musical genre, it gives it a brand new start,” said Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera. “If Whiplash was the revelation of a new filmmaker, La La Land is his definitive, albeit precocious, consecration among the great directors of Hollywood’s new firmament,” he added.

Chazelle wrote La La Land before Whiplash. It is described as an old fashioned musical set in contemporary Los Angeles and centers on a love story between a jazz pianist and an aspiring actress.