Bernardo Bertolucci to chair Venice Film Festival jury

PanARMENIAN.Net - Bernardo Bertolucci will chair the international jury at this year's Venice International Film Festival, TheWrap said.

Bertolucci is one of the leading lights of Italian cinema. His politically provocative and sexually charged dramas like "Last Tango in Paris" and "The Conformist" are considered classics that helped popularize foreign film during the 1970s. He won a Best Director Oscar in 1987 for his historical drama "The Last Emperor."

In his capacity as jury chief, Bertolucci will help select this year's recipient of the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion. This is his second time chairing the jury; he previously had the same role at the 1983 Venice Film Festival.

“Very few directors can claim a lifetime experience so passionately committed to contemporary cinema like Bertolucci’s," Alberto Barbera, director of the Venice Film Festival, said in a statement. "His work has explored with insatiable curiosity the world around us and the ever evolving language of film, discovering and bringing to our attention what’s most vital and beautiful. Such commitment to 'the present' is one of the finest services that cinema can render to itself and is one of the many reasons why Bertolucci is the ideal Jury President."

The festival will take place from Aug. 28 through Sept. 7.