Werner Herzog to head Berlin film festival jury

Director Werner Herzog gestures during the news conference for the film ''Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans'' at the 34Th Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto September 15, 2009.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German director Werner Herzog will head the jury at the 2010 Berlin film festival, organizers said on Thursday.

The 67-year-old is considered one of the leaders of the New German Cinema movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and has made more than 50 films in a career spanning five decades.

"Werner Herzog's films convey the artistic strength of cinema," said festival director Dieter Kosslick. "We are very pleased to have this outstanding director as jury president for the 60th anniversary of the festival."

Herzog gained a reputation partly through his collaborations with actor Klaus Kinski, who starred in several of his movies including "Woyzeck," "Nosferatu the Vampyre" and "Fitzcarraldo."

Herzog is also a documentary maker, winning an Academy Award nomination for "Encounters at the End of the World," and has presented his opera productions at the Bayreuth Festival and at La Scala in Milan.

Earlier this year he enjoyed the unusual honor of having two feature films in the main competition lineup at the Venice film festival.

One, "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" starring Nicolas Cage, was criticized by director Abel Ferrara for deliberately seeking to cash in on the name and premise of his similarly titled 1992 cult classic "Bad Lieutenant," which starred Harvey Keitel.

The 2010 Berlin film festival runs from February 11-21.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)