Acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou will be the president of the jury of the 64th Venice Film Festival, festival director Marco Muller announced at a press conference in Cannes on Tuesday.

According to China's portal website Sina.com, Muller says that, as the Venice festival is going to celebrate its 75th birthday this year, nothing could be better than to invite Zhang Yimou as president of the Jury.

The position was taken by Chinese actress Gong Li in 2002.

Currently, Zhang Yimou is working on preparations for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Games. However, the report says that the director has asked the organizing committee to give him several days off, from August 29 to September 7, to judge the film festival.

So far, four of Zhang's works have been entered the Venice festival competition. They are: Raise the Red Lantern, The Story of Qiu Ju, Keep Cool and Not One Less.

Gong Li received the best actress award at the festival for her performance in 1992 movie The Story of Qiu Ju.
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(CRI.cn May 23, 2007)