Over the past week, wooden water taxis have been buzzing across the Venetian lagoon to and from the island of Lido, as the intelligentsia, cinema-goers and celebrities fused forces for the 76^th Venice Film Festival.

Among this year’s highlights, James Gray’s Ad Astra, starring Brad Pitt, stunned audiences with its heartfelt tribute to space discovery (it’s out in theaters September 20). Was Brad cavalier in hopping around the festival to screaming fans? You bet. We can’t forget Todd Phillips’ highly anticipated film, Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix, which is not your average superhero film, it digs deep to the person behind the mask.

Filmmakers like Alex Gibney and Pedro Almodovar—who won this year’s lifetime achievement award—mingled about, as the stars were out on the red carpet in full peacocking mode. Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern and Adam Driver pulled up for the premiere of Marriage Story, directed by Noah Baumbach, while Kristen Stewart and Zazie Beetz made face for Seberg, a film about French new wave star, Jean Seberg. We couldn’t help but notice models like Kate Upton, Isabeli Fontana and Jasmine Sanders showed their support at the premieres, too.

As the festival wraps up this weekend, here are some behind-the-scenes shots of celebrities and filmmakers at the 76^th Venice film festival taken by Nadja Sayej.