As expected, Italian culture minister Giuliano Urbani confirmed on Thursday the appointment of Davide Croff as the new president of the Biennale, the organization that runs the Venice Film Festival. (See ScreenDaily.com, Jan 15)

Croff's appointment will now have to be ratified by the both the parliament and the senate's cultural commissions before it becomes effective.

Urbani also named the other new board members of the newly-restructured and partly-privatised Biennale: these are Venice mayor Paolo Costa, the president of the Venice province Luigino Busatto, Venice regional president Giancarlo Galan, and the lawyer Bruno della Ragione.

The new Biennale board, which, theoretically at least, will be in place for four years, will now have to appoint an artistic director for the Venice Film Festival.