Venice film festival Euro-heavy

VENICE, Italy, July 31 (UPI) -- Venice film festival director Moritz de Hadeln has unveiled a largely European crop of titles for the event's 60th edition.

Daily Variety reported Thursday the fare will also feature an ample offering of English-language fare, along with a smattering of Asian cinema.

While de Hadeln may not have managed to capitalize in full on the opportunities provided by this year's underwhelming Cannes, the second-time Venice festival has assembled an impressive assortment of goods by acclaimed international heavyweights, such as Bernardo Bertolucci, the Coen brothers and Michael Winterbottom.

"The selection this year was especially difficult because of the extremely high number of submissions, more than 1,600 works -- including shorts -- 400 of which were offered to us in the past two weeks," the Venice chief lamented at a Rome news conference.