Venice Fest Recruits Elizabeth Banks, Diane Kruger to Prominent Jury Roster

ROME – The Venice Film Festival has announced the full roster of its main jury that will comprise Elizabeth Banks and Diane Kruger alongside Turkish auteur and 2014 Palme d’Or winner Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Poland’s Pawel Pawlikowski, who directed “Ida,” winner of this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Rounding out the fest’s main jury are French author, screenwriter and director Emmanuel Carrere; Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien, who won best director at Cannes this year for “The Assassin”; Italian director Francesco Munzi (“Black Souls”); and British director and screenwriter Lynne Ramsay (“We Need To Talk About Kevin”).

As previously announced, Alfonso Cuaron will serve as jury president.

Venice has also announced jury members of its Horizons section, dedicated to more cutting edge fare and headed by Jonathan Demme.

They are:

French director and screenwriter Alix Delaporte, who made a splash on the Lido last year with “Le dernier coup de mart eau” (“The Last Hammer Blow”), for which actor Romain Paul won the “Marcello Mastroianni” Prize; Spanish actress Paz Vega; Hong Kong’s Fruit Chan, twice in competition at Venice, with “Durian Durian” and “Hollywood, Hong Kong”; and Italian actress Anita Caprioli, known internationally for Alice Rohrwacher’s “Corpo celeste.”

Last but not least, the jury members who will decide the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film – Lion of the Future, headed by Italian director Saverio Costanzo (“Hungry Hearts”), are:

Hong Kong producer Roger Garcia, executive director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival since 2010; French film critic and historian Natacha Laurent, director of the Cinematheque de Toulouse for ten years,until June 2015; American director Charles Burnett, hailed by the fest as “one of the most important independent American filmmakers,” known for cult pic “To Sleep with Anger”; Mexican journalist Daniela Michel, founder and director since 2003 of the Morelia Film Festival, the top launching pad for young Mexican filmmakers.

The Lion of the Future Jury will award a nod to the best debut feature across all competitive sections at the fest.
The prize is worth $100,000 dollars in cash, to be divided equally between the director and the producer.

The 72nd edition of Venice will run September 2-12. The full lineup will be announced on July 29.

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