Angelina Jolie was "enchanted" with north Wales during filming

The North Wales Movie Map, a guide to 30 filming locations, will be used as a case study at the Biennale Cinema di Venezia, starts on Wednesday.

The online scheme was designed to boost tourism in north Wales and could now be copied around the world.

Some estimates claim it generates �1m annually as fans visit the location of films such as the Tomb Raider sequel.

The map was launched in April, along with the North Wales Film and Television Trail, which will also be featured at the film festival.

'Fantastic honour'

MovieMap North Wales provides a guide to 30 different filming locations used on the big and small screens, and features films starring actors as varied as Angelina Jolie, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore and the Carry On team.

It was a joint venture between the Wales Screen Commission and Tourism Partnership North Wales.

Richard Coombs, the commission's film liaison manager in north Wales, said: "It's probably the world's most prestigious film festival which is on a par with Cannes but is more directed at the film makers rather than the audiences.

"This is absolutely brilliant news and it truly is a fantastic honour."

He added: "The research firm, Riposte Turisimo, based in northern Italy, approached us after finding out about the unique nature of the Television and Film Trail and the Movie Map on the internet."

Tourism Partnership's Dewi Davies said: "It is increasing the awareness about north Wales, that it's not only a great place to come and visit but there is a heritage of film making that's been going on for the last half a century."

Film makers are attracted by Snowdonia's beauty

The north Wales hills and mountains have doubled as settings for locations from around the world.

They have played the part of China on at least two occasions, recently in the Tomb Raider sequel starring Angelina Jolie - who spent time filming in the area in 2002 - and in the 1958 Ingrid Bergmann film Inn of the Sixth Happiness.

Jolie returned to the Welsh hills the following year to film The Fever with Vanessa Redgrave, when the landscape was standing in for eastern Europe.

Shots of north Wales were also used in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.