MOVIES > Venice honor, premiere for David Lynch

ROME (Hollywood Reporter) - David Lynch, the writer-director best known for "Blue Velvet," "The Elephant Man" and "Mulholland Drive," will receive a lifetime achievement award at the 63rd Venice Film Festival, organizers announced Friday.

It will be a double honor for Lynch, whose mystery film "Inland Empire" will have its world premiere -- out of competition -- at the festival.

"Lynch has a fascination for what is usually unseen -- for mysterious beauty, of the kind that appears in strange places and sometimes turns out to be horrific," Venice artistic director Marco Muller said in a statement.

"Inland Empire," set near Los Angeles, stars Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons and Harry Dean Stanton.

The Venice festival opens August 30 and runs through September 9.