George Clooney barved a sinus infection and a rainstorm for the Venice premiere of Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, which got a nine-mimiute standing ovation.

Clooney walked the red carpet on the Lido with his co-star Adam Sandler, who made a rare appearance in a tux.

The two leading men play a Hollywood power couple of sorts in the Netflix film, which judging by the Venice applause-o-meter, could be a major Oscar contender. In “Jay Kelly,” Clooney is an aging movie star and Sandler is his manager who has sacrifices everything for his most precious client.

The film’s tagline is “Everybody knows Jay Kelly, but Jay Kelly doesn’t know himself,” and Clooney has described the role as the most “vulnerable” of his career.

“When you’re an actor in my position, at my age, finding roles like this aren’t all that common,” Clooney said. “If you can’t make peace with aging, then you’ve got to get out of the business and just disappear. I’m now the guy that, when I go running after a bad guy, it’s funny — it’s not suspenseful. That’s okay. I embrace all of that.”

Baumbach has premiered a number of his films on the Lido, including 2022’s “White Noise,” 2019’s Oscar-nominated “Marriage Story” and 2015’s documentary “De Palma” about the filmmaking titan.

Clooney, too, has returned to Venice several times over the decades with movies such as 1998’s “Out of Sight,” 2005’s “Good Night, and Good Luck” and most recently with 2024’s “Wolfs.”

eanwhile, Jay Kelly is Sandler’s first Venice Fest premiere.