Beijing-based director Zhang Yimou will preside over the competition jury -comprised only of directors - of the 64th edition of the Venice Film Festival during the Biennale's Jubilee 75th anniversary.

Zhang has won the most major awards at Venice including two Golden Lions in 1992 for The Story of Qui Ju and in 1999 for Not One Less.

Zhang wrote a letter to Marco Mueller callled Venice 'a blessed land (that has) a great affinity with my work.'

Mueller confirmed that the entire jury would be composed of directors for this jubilee edition, repeating the model of Venice's 50th anniversary when Bernardo Bertolucci presided over an all director's jury.

As for what can be anticipated to be included the Venice roster, both Mueller and Croff promise this edition will embrace innovative forms of filmmaking.

The line up will be announced officially July 26 in Rome but Mueller has confirmed it will include 'the first international and most advanced look of 3D digital cinema.' Muller referred to a yet to be named film by 'an important director' which he viewed in Los Angeles in April.

'We did already capture quite a few very innovative films,' Mueller told Screen International in Cannes. 'From the 75th edition of the festival you will get intimations of what the future of cinema will be and at least we can definitely announce the trend setting films for the future,' he boasted.

'There will be quite a few new paths in this new edition,' Mueller also said. He confirmed he would give a competition slot to a 3D animation feature.

Despite the new trends, the formula will remain unchanged. Mueller told Screen International that 55 films will make up the competition, out of competition, gala titles and Horizons sections.

But after a star-studded Cannes, how much glamour can Venice expect to deliver'

'I am afraid this will be our main problem,' Mueller told Screen International. I have problems accommodating such a huge number of important titles, star studded films, but I think it is fairly likely that we are going to have an unprecedented number of quite striking English-language films being world premiered in Venice.'

At the same time, he warns Asian contenders: 'there is no rush, we want to see a completed finished film we won't make a decision on the very rough rough cut that was sent to Cannes.'

Mueller confirmed to Screen International that he has managed to repeat his feat of last year when all of his competition titles were world premieres for this year's edition. ' All the big American producers and international distributors say, 'I will keep my picture for Venice and I will release it based on the impact created by the festival presentation.''

Regarding the Rome Film Festival's post Cannes presser announcement that they nabbed Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth Mueller only says, 'they got the Coppola film but you don't know which films we've got. And we don't make announcements before the 26th of July. We could have made 20 announcements over the last two months but I think any serious festival has to wait.'

Meanwhile, as a sign of their increasing tolerance of each other, Rome and Venice are sharing a retrospective on Spaghetti Westerns to be hosted at Venice by Quentin Tarantino.

Muller concludes his four-year mandate with this edition - and he intends to do so on a powerful note. 'Judging from the elements that are being made available for us I think it will be a much stronger year than last year,' he said.

The 64th edition runs Aug 29-Sept 8.

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