New Venice heads Marco Mueller (artistic director) andDavide Croff (Biennale president) said that this year's Venice festival willclose with a bang. The closing ceremony will take place on the main Veniceisland at the newly restored la Fenice opera house. This will have the doubleadvantage of a spectacular close to the event and allowing the screens on theLido to be kept occupied with festival films until the last minute.

Mueller confirmed that the festival will have a specialretrospective section of Italian films, many recently restored, and anotherdedicated to digital films. Many of the films appearing in this section will below-budget efforts from countries where conventional film-making is tooexpensive.

The festival said that it is considering the launch of adirector-driven sidebar similar to Cannes' Quinzaine section, but that this isnot yet locked down.