Rome Film Festival to feature 150 films

Oct 1, 2008, 13:38 GMT

Rome - Rome Film Festival organizers unveiled Wednesday this year's 150-film lineup, including 8, a United Nations-backed movie on poverty which features India's Mira Nair, Mauritania's Abderrahmane Sissako and Germany's Wim Wenders among the contributing directors.

The festival's third edition, running October 22-31, will open with one of the 20 films running for the festival's Golden Marco Aurelio top prize, L'Uomo che Ama, starring Monica Bellucci.

Also in the official competition is Gavin O'Connor's Pride and Glory, a film about a New York police family, featuring Hollywood stars Edward Norton, Colin Farrell and Jon Voight.

French actress Isabelle Huppert heads the cast of Cambodian director Rithy Panh's The Sea Wall, which is also in competition along with South Korean director Zhang Lu's film Iri, and Afghanistan's Siddiq Barmak's, Opium War.

Scarface and Godfather-star Al Pacino is scheduled to meet visitors at the festival venue in Rome's Auditorium Parco della Musica, and will be among the celebrities walking down the red- carpet.

Veteran film diva Gina Lollobrigida is set to receive the Marco Aurelio career award while a photo exhibition will pay homage to Italian director Dino Risi who died in June.

This year the Occhio Sul Mondo (Eye on the World) section focuses on Brazilian cinema, allowing visitors to admire the 'considerable achievements made since the explosion of the Brazil's 'cinema novo' (New Cinema) movement 50 years ago,' according to festival director Gian Luigi Rondi.

The Brazilian theme will be further celebrated on the festival's opening day with the Be Brazilian event featuring artists, musicians and dancers at the Italian capital's famous Piazza Navona square.