Takashi Shimizu acts as special judge for 3D film at Venice Film Festival

by Chris MaGee

Who would have ever thought that in roughly a year's time 3D technology would have transformed the moviegoing experience. Shortly after the blockbuster success of James Cameron's "Avatar" studios began to either produce films with the new 3D camera technology or retro-fit upcoming releases so they could be a part of the 3D boom. Now it seems that every week a new 3D release is announced (how long before we get a 3d Woody Allen film???) so the fact that one of the world's major film festivals has appointed a special jury head for its 3D programme.

As we report this (sadly a bout of flu sidelined me earlier this week) the 67th Venice Film Festival is bringing the big films and the big stars to the Italian city. While such luminaries as Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo Arriaga, Arnaud Desplechin, Luca Guadagnino, Gabriele Salvatores and Danny Elfman have been appointed at the fest's main jury J-Horror pioneer Takashi Shimizu (above) has been named a special judge for 3D films. Makes perfect sense as Shimizu is the man who directed the first 3D feature film in Japanese film history, namely the haunted fun park chiller "Shock Labyrinth 3D", which by the way is also screening at Venice out of competition.

The 67th Venice Film Festival kicked off this past Wednesday, September 1st and will run until September 11th. Thanks to Tokyograph for this news.