The Venice Film Festival is known as one of the most important and oldest film festivals in the world. The festival ends in three days but audiences and critics are already questioning who will win the Golden Lion.

This year, 21 films are competing for the Golden Lion and like last year no film has stood out as a clear front-runner to win the award. The Golden Lion is the top prize at the festival and it can bring international exposure to an unknown film as well as Oscar buzz.

Recently, "A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence," "Sacro GRA," "Pieta," "Faust," "Somewhere," "Lebanon" and "The Wrestler" won the award. Out of these films, only "The Wrestler" went on to get nominated for the Oscars but three of the films were submitted as foreign film competitors.

Out of the films to have already premiered Carey Fukunaga's "Beasts of No Nation" scored rave reviews and scored Oscar buzz. However, critics questioned whether the movie's nontraditional distribution would hurt its wide exposure and its Oscar chances. The movie already premiered at Telluride and is slated for Toronto.

Tom Hooper's "The Danish Girl" premiered to good reviews if not great ones. Critics hailed Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander's for their performances and critics have already placed them as front runners to get nominated in acting categories. However, the movie's traditional plot will definitely hurt its chances for the Golden Lion and even the Academy. Redmayne is currently the frontrunner to win Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival but it will be interesting to see how it performs with the overall jury.

Other films that got great reviews were Pablo Trapero's "El Clan" and Laurie Anderson's "Heart of a Dog," which immediately got picked up for distribution. Marco Bellocchio's "Sangue del mio Sangue" was also hailed by critics and many expect the movie to be selected as the Italian Oscar selection.

Also opening to surprising reviews was "Marguerite" by Xavier Giannoli. The film is opening at the Toronto Film Festival and is one of France's shortlisted films for the Oscars. The movie will be competing with Palm D'Or winner "Dheepan" by Jacques Audiard.

Charlie Kaufman's "Anomalisa," which is a stop motion picture opened to great reviews but it will be interesting to see if the jury is willing to give an animated film the top prize.

Piero Messina's "L'Attesa" got Juliette Binoche great notices and is currently the frontrunner to win the Best Actress award at the festival. Meanwhile, Aleksandr Sokurov's "Francofonia" received favorable reviews but was not a standout. The movie however was praised for its visuals.

Films that disappointed included "Abluka" by Emin Alper and Luca Guadagnino's "A Bigger Splash" starring Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson. "A Bigger Splash" was recently acquired by Fox Searchlight but the film will not open until next year in May.

Drake Doremus' latest "Equals" was also derided by festival critics and currently has a 13 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics complained about its uneven and dull script as well as Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart's performances.

Oliver Hermanus' "The Endless River" was divisive but hailed for its complexity and its challenging themes. The South African film is likely to appeal to Hermanus fans but it is unlikely to win the Golden Lion.

"Rabin, The Last Day" by Amos Gitai was also divisive as critics noted that audience will be limited for the film and that it will probably do better at festivals.

There are still a couple of films to premiere and perhaps these last films will make the competition a bit more clear.

The Golden Lion will be handed out on Sept. 12.

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