A few international film festivals have announced their jury heads today, so here's a roundup, plus other fest circuit news:- Chinese auteur Wong Kar-Wai (2046) will be replacing the late Anthony Minghella as the head of the jury at this month's Shanghai International Film Festival. Minghella, who died in March, will be honored by the fest, which runs June 14-22. Other jury members include filmmaker Bille August and Joan Chen, who once starred in a film co-written by Wong (1986's E nan).
- Actor Danny Huston (Children of Men) will head the Michael Powell jury at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which runs June 18-29. He and others, including actress Joely Richardson and filmmaker Iain Softley, will be voting for the winner of the prestigious Michael Powell award. Last year's winner was Anton Corbijn's Control.
- Italian film critic Gian Luigi Rondi has been invited to be the new president of the three-year-old Rome Film Festival following a political shakeup that caused the resignation of former president Goffredo Bettini. Rondi was the artistic director of the Venice Film Festival between 1983 to 1986 and currently heads Italy's version of the Academy Awards, the David di Donatello Awards. He has so far declined that he will accept. The 2008 festival will run October 21-31.
- Jean-Luc Godard may be boycotting the Tel Aviv Student Film Festival, but other French filmmakers are set to attend another event, the Tel Aviv French Film Festival, which begins June 10. Those scheduled to appear include Alexandre Arcady, Diane Kurys and Laetitia Masson. Popular films set to screen include The Secret of the Grain and Love Songs, my review for which you can read here.
