Los Angeles, May 8 (IANS): BAFTA-winning French actress Isabelle Huppert is set to head to Italy as she will preside over the main jury of the upcoming edition of the Venice Film Festival.

The actress has a longstanding rapport with the festival as she has won Venice’s Coppa Volpi for best actress twice, first with ‘Story of Women’ in 1988, and subsequently with ‘La Ceremonie’ in 1995, both directed by Claude Chabrol, reports Variety.

The actress has made a total of eight films with Chabrol, and also has a close bond with the Cannes Film Festival where in 1978, she won the best actress statuette for Chabrol’s ‘Violette’.

Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world and is included in the ‘Big Three’ European film festivals and ‘Big Five’ film festivals across the world.

As per Variety, in 2001, she won her second best actress award at Cannes for her tour-de-force performance as a sadomasochistic music professor in Michael Haneke’s ‘The Piano’. In 2005, Huppert was honoured by Venice with a Special Golden Lion for her titular role in ‘Gabrielle’, Patrice Chereau’s costume drama about an imploded marriage.

“Isabelle Huppert is an immense actress. Demanding, curious and of great generosity,” said Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera in a statement.

Alberto added: “The muse of numerous great filmmakers, she has never shirked the invitation of young or not-so-famous directors who have seen in her the ideal interpreter of their stories.”