MUMBAI: Al Pacino will be the guest of honour at the third Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma that will take place from 22 – 31 October. The American actor is coming to Italy to collect the Marc’Aurelio Alla Carriera – Acting Award, being given to the Actors Studio, of which he is one of the presidents.
The Acting Award is the annual recognition given by the Festival Internazionale del Film to an international personality, within the section "L’Altro Cinema". Sean Connery (2006) and Sofia Loren (2007) received the accolade prior to Pacino. The 2008 Acting Award will be handed over by head of the "Anteprima" (Premiere) section Piera De Tassis, and from this year also coordinator of the Festival’s Artistic Directors.
"I am thrilled to represent the Actors Studio at this wonderful Film Festival", commented APacino. "This is our third year of being honoured by you and we are grateful for the spotlight you have shown The Studio by sharing some of the 60 years of great films that have represented the work that we do". The actor continued, "Thank you for bestowing your ‘Marc’Aurelio Acting Award’ on me. It is a further indication of the homage to the work of the Actors Studio and I am very honoured to receive it".
Head of the "L’Altro Cinema" (Extra) section, Mario Sesti, reiterated, "there could not have been a better occasion to crown the extraordinary collaboration between the Rome Festival and the Actors Studio. It has involved a retrospective of almost 30 films, with two extremely popular workshops and numerous encounters with performers such as Jane Fonda, Martin Landau, Ellen Burstyn and others, all a resounding success, and not merely with cinema professionals".
Following in the footsteps of the other Acting Award recipients Loren and Connery, this year Pacino will also participate in a meeting with the Festival public and accredited journalists as part of the "L’Altro Cinema" (Extra) section. During this encounter, he will comment on scenes from films chosen to demonstrate the unmistakable method of identification and subjective research that has been the ever-present hallmark of the Actors Studio style.
In addition, the Festival del Film di Roma, will put on a Pacino retrospective. Some films, such as Looking for Richard and the unseen Chinese Coffee and Babylonia, were specified by the American actor himself. While other titles will be chosen by the public at large, via an online survey "Vote for your favourite Al Pacino", running on the Festival’s site www.romacinemafest.org.
