The 64th Venice FilmFestival will take place Aug 29-Sept 8, 2007 the board of directors of theBiennale announced on Wednesday; the dates were released along with guidelinesto govern the fest's next edition which takes place 75 years after itsinception.

Main competition films willbe limited to 20 titles - the 2006 edition had 21 official entries and onesurprise addition added mid-festival. Out of Competition titles will be limitedto 8 (9 were presented in 2006) and 5 more will be presented in the Out of CompetitionMidnight section (7 were presented in 2006). The Horizons section will belimited to 18 titles. In 2006, Horizons and Horizons documentary titles reached19 comprehensively. As in previous years, 'flexibility for additionalspecial events' will be permitted.

In celebration of the 75thanniversary since the festival's first splash on the Lido, (a few editions weresuspended, for example during WWII) a Golden Lion 75 will be added as a'prize of excellence.' The award will be given in addition to theestablished Gold Career Lion.

The Italian SpaghettiWestern will be featured in a retrospective dedicated to the genre. 'Fortyyears after the release of Sergio Leone's For a Fistful of Dollars, the fascination for the spaghetti western doesn't seemto diminish, when considering the homage of diverse directors like QuentinTarantino, John Woo, Martin Scorsese and Jonnie To have recently made in theirfilms,' the Biennale said.

The announcement from theBiennale comes just a week after Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli met with thepresidents of Italy's three festivals Venice, Turin and the newcomer Rome tosettle unresolved calendar issues.

No official dates wereprinted at that time, although a mandate to work together to promote 'threemonths of cinema' was central to the meeting. At that time, a Ministryspokesperson confirmed leaked dates shortening Venice by one day and pushingRome forward 10 days, and Turin would from mid to end of November. The biennaleboard of director's statement brings this issue to a close, at least for Venice,which will maintain its original placement and number of days.