Venice festival to fete filmmaker Youssef Chahine

ROME (Hollywood Reporter) - This year's Venice Film Festival will be dedicated to Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, who died July 27 at 82.

Chahine, whose crime drama "Chaos" screened in competition in Venice last year, was co-winner of the festival's UNESCO award in 2002 for his work on the controversial film "11'09'01 -- September 11."

It is the second major homage to Chahine since his death. The just-completed Locarno Film Festival also paid tribute to the director, with a Piazza Grande screening of his historical romance "Destiny," which had first screened at the same venue in 1997.

In Venice, the tribute film will be "Cairo Station," a 1958 classic that Chahine starred in and directed. The film will screen August 31 at midnight.

The 65th edition of the Venice Film Festival is scheduled for August 27-September 6.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter