Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche will preside over the International Jury for the Luigi De Laurentiis Prize for a debut film at the 65th edition of the Venice Film Festival, the Biennale said.

Kechiche himself won the first feature prize at Venice in 2000 for his film Blame it on Voltaire. In 2007 his film The Secret of the Grain (La Graine et le mullet) took Venice's Special Jury Prize, the Fipresci award and the Marcello Mastroianni Prize for Best New Young Actress (Hafsia Herzi).

He will be accompanied by a jury made up of Brazilian actress Alice Braga (I am Legend, Blindness); prolific US director and producer Gregory Jacobs whose 15-year collaboration with Steven Soderbergh includes works like Che, Erin Brockovich, Traffic and other films; critic, producer and director Donald Ranvaud whose credits include executive producing of The Constant Gardener; and finally Italian script writer Heidrun Schleef who is known for collaborations on films such as Nanni Moretti's Palme d'Or winner The Son's Room.

All first works presented at the Venice Film Festival in competition will be eligible for The Luigi de Laurentiis prize for a debut film - also called the 'Golden Lion of the Future' award.

The prestigious prize comes with $100,000 award made available by Aurelio De Laurentiis' Filmauro to be divided equally between the director and producer.

The prize also carries the value of Euros 40,000 in Kodak film, to be awarded to the winning film's director.

The 65th edition of the Venice Film Festival runs August 27-September 6.

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