The Venice International Film Festival has a long history of introducing Oscar contenders, with critically-acclaimed hits and Best Picture nominees such as The Wrestler, Black Swan and last year's Gravity making their world premieres at the festival. This year's Venice International Film Festival kicked off earlier this week with Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, and if the overwhelmingly positive reviews are any indication, this could be the year's first major Oscar contender.The story, as we saw in the first international trailer from last month, centers on Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton), a washed up actor who used to play a famous superhero character on the big screen.