Hong Kong Tsui Hark's epic martial arts fantasy Seven Swordswill open the Venice Film Festival, and will be screened out of competition. The Venice fest is slated for Aug. 31-Sept. 10 and Dante Ferretti, Oscar-winning set designer of The Aviator will be president of the jury

A special "wuxia" martial arts theme party is planned on the Excelsior Hotel beach, the meeting place for journalists, cast and crew, for a celebration of 100 years of Chinese cinema.

Asian films will predominate this year's festival. Festival director Marco Mueller, a leading European authority and expert in Chinese literature, is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese. He made a guest appearance at the "Far East Film Festival" in April.

A "Secret History of Asian Cinema" retrospective for films from China, Hong Kong, Japan and India that have only received domestic distribution will be featured.

Japanese anime director Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle will receive a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.


So far the lineup includes DreamWorks'Madagascar , John Turturro's Romance and Cigarettes, Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Lady Vengeance , Philippe Garrel's Les Amants Reguliers ,and Patrice Chereau's Gabrielle.

The rest of the lineup will be announced July 28.

Moira Sullivan