AN INTERNATIONAL jury headed by American filmmaker Gregg Araki will decide the winner in the Venice Film Festival sidebar in which Lav Diaz’s “Kagadanan sa banwaan ning mga engkanto” (”Death in the Land of Encantos”) is competing.

The rest of the jury in the Horizons (Orizzonti) section of the fest is composed of Frederick Wiseman, Hala Alabdalla Yakoub, Giorgia Fiorio and Ulrich Gregor. Horizons, which highlights trends in cutting-edge cinema, has two categories, Fiction and Documentaries. “Death…” by the Mindanao-born filmmaker is in the latter category.

The other entries include “Useless” by Chinese director Jia Zhangke who won the fest’s Golden Lion plum last year with “Still Life;”Man From Plains,” Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme’s look at former US president Jimmy Carter; and “Berlin,” Julian Schnabel’s concert docu on Lou Reed.

IN OUR job of interviewing Hollywood stars, one of the biggest challenges is transcribing the interviews and making some celebrities sound coherent.

In addition to wading through so many “You know” and “I think” remarks, our task is made harder by the stars’ predilection for using jargon that is unintelligible or has not yet made it to the masses’ consciousness.

(There are some stars though who are a dream to transcribe. They speak complete, coherent sentences.)

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“ROME and Juliet,” a Filipino film starring Andrea del Rosario, Rafael Rosell and Mylene Dizon, will have its US bicoastal premiere this month.

The movie will be shown first in the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which is popularly known as OutFest, on Saturday, July 21, 12 noon at the Regent Showcase on 614 N. La Brea Avenue (e-mail boxoffice@outfest.org).

Then the film gets its East Coast premiere at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival on Tuesday, July 24, 10 p.m. at the Village East Cinema 7 on 2nd at 12th Street.

The lesbian drama tells the story of Juliet (Andrea del Rosario), a conservative preschool teacher, who is engaged to be married to a young politician (Rafael Rosell). But when Juliet hires Rome (Mylene Dizon) as her wedding planner, an unexpected bond develops between the two women. The resulting dilemma provides the film’s emotional crux.

“Rome and Juliet” also stars Tessie Tomas, Glydel Mercado, Liza Dino, Miko Palanca, Lui Villaruz, Joshua Deocareza, CJ Mercado, Crispin Pineda and Francis Makil Ignacio. It will be interesting to see how a Pinoy lesbian drama is received at these US festivals. The film is directed by Connie S.A. Macatuno with Ronald Arguelles as executive producer.

“NAGTITITILI siya!” was how director Yam Laranas described the reaction of Iza Calzado upon learning that she landed the plum role in his Hollywood remake of “The Echo.”

Yam fought for Iza to reprise the role of the battered wife who haunts an apartment. Roy Lee, the producer of “The Echo,” agreed, saying “she was perfect in the original. Why shouldn’t we get her for the remake?”

The management of GMA Network, where Iza has a TV show, has allowed her time off to film in Toronto starting on August 20. Yam sounded just as thrilled for Iza when he called us in London from Toronto to share the good news.

“COLMA: The Musical” is now also showing in New York at the Quad, 34 W 13th Street.

The indie musical film, which features Fil-Am talents, was reviewed by The New York Times’ Manohla Dargis.

Here are excerpts:

An itty-bitty movie with a great big heart, “Colma” is about three young people on the brink of that terrifying adventure called life, but it’s also about how we learn to give voice — joyfully, honestly, loudly — to the truest parts of ourselves, parts not everyone else hears… Out of the closet to everyone but his darkly glowering father (Larry Soriano), Rodel (Mr. H.P. Mendoza) scribbles on scraps of paper that mirror his disconnectedness and sings with as much hurt as he speaks. He’s the familiar angry young man with the caustic wit that’s as much shield as weapon.

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