DUBAI: Tunisian film producer Dora Bouchoucha was on Monday named as a jury member for the 77th Venice International Film Festival due to take place in September.
Festival organizers announced that Bouchoucha, Tunisia’s first female movie producer, would be a judge for the Luigi De Laurentiis award for best debut feature screening in Venice.
The 62-year-old filmmaker will join Italian director Claudio Giovannesi, who will serve as president, and French artistic director Remi Bonhomme, who has also been appointed as artistic director for the Marrakesh International Film Festival.
In 2017, the Huffington Post described Bouchoucha as “a born rebel, a trailblazer of wonderful self-assurance, elegance, and beauty” and in 2018 she attended the Cannes Film Festival premiere of “Dear Son,” a feature film co-produced by her company, Nomadis Images.
The winner of the Luigi De Laurentiis award will receive $100,000 to be shared between the film’s director and producer.
Venice is the world’s longest-running film festival and in January its organizers announced that Australian actress Cate Blanchett would preside over this year’s edition.
Due to the lockdowns imposed on the film industry around the world to help limit the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the festival was likely to be attended by fewer productions, said regional governor Luca Zaia, who is also a board member of the Biennale di Venezia arts organization.
