The 64th Venice Film Festival will take place this year from the 29th of August to the 8th of September. The jury will be chaired by the excellent Chinese director Zhang Yimou, with all other jurists also being directors. There are no Americans on the jury this year, but there will be plenty of American stars such as the gorgeous Scarlett Johansson and the even-more-gorgeous George Clooney, who lives on Lake Como, beato lui.
Here is the program. As you may know, most movies presented are under the two categories "In Concorso" and "Fuori Concorso"; respectively, competing to win the Golden Lion and not competing. Another interesting feature is the rassegna monografica, a showing of films by theme. This year's focus is fun: spaghetti Westerns. About 40 Italian Westerns which haven't been seen for at least ten years will be shown. Quentin Tarantino will preside over this section of the Festival.
If you can get to Italy at this time, it would not be a bad idea to check the Festival out (reserving your tickets in time). I personally like the Lido (shown in inset) very much, especially the outlying, older sections of Malamocco and Alberoni.
