Greek, Paris-based director Costa-Gavras will head the jury of the 2008 Berlinale before tackling his first Greek project in decades, it was announced earlier this week. The 58th edition of the Berlin Film Festival will start on February 8, 2008 in the German capital. The director, who is also the president of the French cinémathèque, won the festival's top honour, the Golden Bear, in 1990 for his film Music Box. The politically engaged director also showed his 2002 feature Amen, about the Vatican's involvement with German National Socialism, at the Berlinale and won Oscars for his 1969 feature Z and his 1982 film Missing, which also won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His latest film Le couperet (The Ax) was a dark drama about corporate ruthlessness that premiered in 2005.

The Berlin Film Festival also revealed that its lifetime achievement award will go to another politically engaged filmmaker: Italian director Francesco Rosi. The director won the Cannes Palme d'Or in 1972 for Il caso Mattei and a Best Director Silver Bear at Berlin in 1962 for his drama Salvatore Giuliano, both based on biographies of powerful Italians. Rosi will receive the Honorary Golden Bear on February 14.

After his jury duty, the director born as Konstantinos Gavras will start filming on Eden is West in early March, with locations including the Alps, Paris and the Greek island of Crete. A total of 11 weeks of filming is scheduled on the feature that will be the first Greek-produced film of the director in forty years, beating both Dutchman Paul Verhoeven and Finn Renny Harlin -- who both recently turned to their native countries to make a film there after prolonged stays abroad -- by several decades. Costa-Gavras described the new film in an interview with Ekathimerini as an immigrant's tale with an element of magic: "We all need the idea of a 'magician' that will change things. A Harry Potter kind of guy".

(sources: Berlinale, Ekathimerini)