The Venice film festival has named its new regional consultants and cinema experts for the upcoming 68th edition, which runs August 31-Sept 10, 2011.

They include Giulia D’Agnolo Valan, who is also the consultant for the United States and Marie-Pierre Duhamel [pictured], who is the consultant for France, Spain and Germany. The other experts include Giorgio De Vincenti as well as Antonella Gaeta and Alberto Pezzotta. Enrico Magrelli will act as special consultant to the artistic director, Marco Mueller.

Consultants for the remaining geographical areas include Paolo Bertolin for South Korea and Southeast Asia, Chen Zhiheng for China, Fabio Fumagalli for Benelux, Portugal and Switzerland, Babak Karimi for Iran, Alena Shumakova for Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union as well as Tomita Mikiko for Japan. For India, Deepti Da Cunha joins the consultants with this edition, as does Diego Lerer, who will focus on Central and South America.

For the Orizzonti section, Sergio Fant will be joined by this year’s final newcomer, Paolo Moretti.

The cinema consultants and experts are selected by Marco Mueller and approved by the board of directors of the Biennale di Venezia which is chaired by Paolo Baratta.