Director Wim Wenderswill lead the jury of the 65th Venice Film Festival, the biennale's board of directors has announced.

Venice's artistic director Marco Mueller selected Wenders as the president of the jury in what will be a pivotal fifth year as Venice's artistic director and the beginning of his renewed four-year mandate.

Last year Mueller had formed an all-director jury led by Chinese director Zhang Yimou.

In a statement, the Biennale called Wenders 'one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation,' and lauded his close ties to Venice throughout his career.

Indeed, Wenders debuted as a filmmaker in 1972 with his first feature The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty Kick (Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter) and won the Golden Lion, Venice's top prize in 1982 for The State of Things (Der Stand der Dinge).

Other works by Wenders that have participated in the Venice Film Festival over the years include Lightning over Water (1989) in the Mezzogiorno-Mezzanotte section dedicated to spectacular films; Docu Drama (1985), which participated in Venice's Critic's Week sidebar; Arisha, the Bear and the Stone Ring (Arisha, der Bar und der steinerne Ring - 1994), which was featured in the Finestra sulle immagini section while in 1996 he co-directed Beyond the Clouds with the late Michelangelo Antonioni. Presented out of competition, it won the FIPRESCI award that year. In 2004, Wenders was again present in competition with Land of Plenty.

Other important works by Wenders include the 1984 Sam Shepard adaptation and Palme d'Or winning Paris, Texas. At Cannes, Wenders has also taken best director accolades in 1987, for another of his prominent works Wings of Desire. He returned to Cannes in 2008 with Competition title The Palermo Shooting.

The Venice Festival runs Aug27-Sept 6.

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