Acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou has been chosen to head an all-directors' jury at this year's Venice Film Festival, organisers said on Tuesday.
The festival, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, will run from August 29 to September 8.
Organisers did not name the other jurors, saying only that just as in 1982, when the festival celebrated its 50th anniversary with a jury headed by Italy's Oscar-winning filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci, all other members of the Jubilee festivities would be directors, "without exception".
Zhang was tagged as chair because he has won more major awards than any other director at the world's oldest film festival, festival chief Marco Mueller said.
The 56-year-old filmmaker has won two Golden Lions - Venice's top honour - for his 1992 film The Story of Qiu Ju and his 1999 Not One Less.
He received the Silver Lion in 1991 for Raise the Red Lantern while leading lady Gong Li won the best actress award for The Story of Qiu Ju.
Zhang, who was in China working on preparations for the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, told Mueller in an acceptance letter he was "very grateful" for the invitation.
"I've been honoured with major awards by this festival and it has certainly given me the greatest emotions," Zhang said.
Zhang has also won the Golden Bear at Berlin's film festival with Red Sorghum and the Palme D'Or at Cannes in 1994 and 2003.
TIM BURTON, ALEXANDER KLUGE, SPAGHETTI WESTERNS TO BE FETED.
Although the festival was first staged in 1932 as part of the Venice Biennial of contemporary art and this year marks its Jubilee, it was suspended during the war years and consequently this edition will actually be the 64th.
"Venice was the first event of its kind and has become the model for every other cinema festival around the world," Biennial President Davide Croff said earlier this year, referring to Jubilee celebrations.
Mueller said more details of events this year would be announced at a news conference in Rome on July 26.
He did say that Venice would spotlight "the most advanced experimentation of 3D cinema to date" although he declined to name the film to be shown.
It will also fete Italian cinema with a retrospective celebration of the country's legendary Spaghetti Westerns.
The genre emerged in the 1960s, when Italian studios started producing low-budget Westerns, breaking with Hollywood's traditional approach.
Although initially in Italian, they soon switched to English and are now considered pivotal in having shaped modern concepts of Western films around the world.
Sergio Leone's Man With No Name trilogy became the archetype for the genre, starring Clint Eastwood, a little-known American TV actor at the time. The final film in the trilogy, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), is among the best-known Westerns ever made.
In March, Mueller announced that Tim Burton will receive a special Golden Lion for career achievement on September 5.
The festival called Burton, 48, "one of the authentic visionaries of contemporary cinema," lauding the way he left his "unique and personal mark" on works that never compromised his art while meeting box-office expectations.
Mueller said Burton - also the creator of cult hits like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands - was "a movie genius, the most imaginative son of the new age of the art".
German director Alexander Kluge - winner of two Golden Lions in previous editions - will also be honoured with showings of his Ein-Minuten-Filme, 60-second features created in over 40 years of work for Germany's Zdf and Sweden's Svt television stations.
Kluge, considered the father of Young German Cinema, will provide an overview of the last 75 years of the history of cinema with a special feature, including materials exploring pre-cinema history and silent cinema.
The 2007 festival will feature a selection of 60 movies, including 20 competing for the Golden Lion prize.
