By Mike Collett-White and Silvia Aloisi

VENICE, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Mickey Rourke and Anne Hathaway are among the favourites to win top actor and actress prizes at the Venice film festival awards ceremony on Saturday, while the race for the coveted Golden Lion for best picture is wide open.

The 11-day cinema showcase in the canal city has been under fire for what critics said was a generally weak selection of 21 films in the main competition, but three strong U.S. entries towards the end have helped lift spirits.

Rourke gave what critics have called the performance of his life in Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler", in which he plays a lonely, washed out fighter whose story poignantly mirrors the Hollywood outsider's own troubled past.

"I can honestly say right now, the best ... movie I've ever made is this," Rourke told Reuters before attending a press briefing where he received a rare standing ovation.

Hathaway also impressed in her unusually dark role in "Rachel Getting Married", Jonathan Demme's touching wedding drama that has been lauded in Venice.

A third late entry, "The Hurt Locker" by U.S. director Kathryn Bigelow, leads an informal poll of Italian critics who were impressed by its portrayal of the perils faced by a bomb disposal unit in Iraq led by a reckless sergeant.

The U.S. trio faces stiff competition from Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, who charmed critics and the public alike with his touching cartoon "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea", a re-telling of "The Little Mermaid" fairytale.

Were Miyazaki to walk off with the Golden Lion, it would be the fourth year in a row an Asian director had done so.

FIRST AFRICAN WINNER?

Ethiopian entry "Teza" is in the frame for the top prize, and would be the first African picture to win in Venice, the world's oldest film festival where the jury is notoriously difficult to second guess.

Haile Gerima's powerful tale of an intellectual who flees violence and alienation in his native Ethiopia and Germany, would be a generally popular winner on the Lido waterfront.

The Italian press is hoping for a first home win in 10 years with "Birdwatchers", a depiction of native Indians with no prospects other than working in slave-like conditions for rich farmers and posing for tourists' cameras.

Venice has a reputation as a launchpad for successful award campaigns, although in a year when director Marco Mueller has been under fire for his selection, relatively few Academy Award contenders emerged beyond Rourke and Hathaway.

Also impressive was Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron in "The Burning Plain", an intense story of love and betrayal in the directorial debut by Mexican screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga.

The Coen brothers opened this year's festival with "Burn After Reading", which was out of competition but ensured that Hollywood A-listers Brad Pitt and George Clooney were on the red carpet in a festival otherwise lacking star power. (To read more about our entertainment news, visit our blog "Fan Fare" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/fanfare)

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