REEL NEWS: The recently founded Rome Film Festival continues its efforts to compete with the venerable Venice event. It has been announced that Ennio Morricone, one of the greatest ever film composers, will head the jury of this year's jamboree.

However, Czar Giancarlo Galan, Italy’s new culture minister, has never been very happy about the capital’s efforts to steal Venice’s thunder. “Venice is the oldest festival in the world,” Galan argued, before going on to claim that the competition for funds “risks weakening both events”.

The fact that Galan is a former governor of the Veneto region, which includes Venice, must be seen as a complete coincidence.