Rome is busily preparing a major new film festival for 2006 and billing it as a cinema event which will rival long-established festivals in Venice, Berlin and Cannes, Italian media reported here on Monday.

The event, which has a budget of 9 million euros (10.8 million U.S. dollars), will take place on Oct. 13-21 and feature around 80 movies, divided between five sections, according to details just announced.

"I hope to see exciting films, the sort which leave a mark that stays with you for the rest of your life," said Rome's Mayor Walter Veltroni, a film buff and the driving force behind the festival's creation.

Veltroni says the event will be tailored to the public more than the film industry and, in line with this principle, will " involve the entire city."

The competition jury, for example, will be made up of 50 ordinary cinema-goers, guided by an expert chair person.

After sizing up 14 previously unscreened movies by upcoming international directors, they will adjudicate three awards - best film, best actor and best actress, each worth 200,000 euros (240, 000 dollars) to the winner.

Seven films by top international directors will be screened for the first time in the Premiere section and the Italy's Roberto De Niro is among the A-list movie stars expected to attend the debut edition.

Italian actress Monica Bellucci is one of the event's sponsors.

Veltroni said the program will contain parallel exhibitions, discussions, music and fashion shows and literary meetings too.

"The Rome Film Festival springs from this city's great love of cinema. It's a festival dedicated to those who love cinema and also to those who want to discover it and are ready to venture into its endless magic."

Source: Xinhua