French film icon Catherine Deneuve will head the international jury that will award the coveted Golden Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival, organizers said Wednesday.
The decision was made during a board meeting of the Venice Biennale, the activities of which include the film festival.
``We are proud that a personality like Catherine Deneuve will preside over the Venice jury,'' said a joint statement by Davide Croff, president of the Venice Biennale, and festival director Marco Muller. The statement said Deneuve's charisma and knowledge of cinema would help other jurors work with serenity and balance.
The lineup of movies competing for the top award, as well as those showing out of competition, is expected to be presented next month. The festival in the lagoon city runs from Aug. 30 to Sept. 9.
Italian directors have completed a 93-minute documentary they say is the first feature film to be entirely shot using a mobile phone camera.
The theme is familiar to many independent movies -- explicit chat about love and sex -- but the tool used to shoot Italian feature-length documentary is new.
Called New Love Meetings, it was filmed in a MPEG4 format with a Nokia N90 -- a regular, higher-end cell phone on sale around the globe, documentary co-director Marcello Mencarini said.
The technique underscores what has become a fixture in today's globalized world: The use of amateur video and cell phone cameras to immortalize moments in people's lives. Also, when news breaks, early footage is often shot with a cell phone, and, in the case of major events, authorities and news outlets have been known to call on amateurs to come forward with video.
``With the widespread availability of cell phones equipped with cameras, anybody could do this,'' Mencarini said in a telephone interview from Milan. ``If you want to say something nowadays, thanks to the new media, you can.''
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told British film producer John Daly on Sunday that his government is willing to help with a movie about the 2002 coup that briefly removed him from power.
``We are willing to cooperate with John Daly and his team to make this movie,'' said Chavez, speaking with Daly during his weekly television and radio program Hello President.
Chavez said he and Daly had discussed the idea for a film about the short-lived military rebellion during an encounter several months ago in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.
Daly praised Chavez while criticizing Washington's alleged involvement in the 2002 coup.
``Venezuelans are very lucky to have a great man like you as their president,'' he said.
``Thank you very much, John, and we are very lucky to have you here,'' responded Chavez, speaking in English with the help of a translator.
The leftist Chavez was unseated by dissident military officers for two days in April 2002 and was restored to power amid massive street protests. He has accused the US government of directing the coup, seizing on US documents indicating that the CIA knew officers had been plotting against him.
US officials have denied involvement.
Egyptian authorities will confiscate copies of the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code and ban the film based on the book from showing in Egypt, the culture minister told parliament on Tuesday.
To applause from members of parliament, minister Farouk Hosni said: "We ban any book that insults any religion ... We will confiscate this book."
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