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Rome film festival to honor Connery

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 June 2006, 18:45 CDT

By Eric J. Lyman

ROME (Hollywood Reporter) - Oscar winner Sean Connery will receive the Acting Award for his career achievements and will host the launch of a retrospective of 14 of his films at the first Rome Cinema Fest, festival organizers announced at a media briefing Wednesday.

The October 13-21 event also announced the creation of three parallel competitions, and it confirmed speculation that the Italian festival would have an "informal collaborative relationship" with New York's Tribeca Film Festival.

But the news about Connery was the centerpiece of the day's announcements. Organizers said Connery would attend the first several days of the Rome festival, including the screening of the 1965 film "The Hill," which will kick off a retrospective selected by the 75-year-old actor.

Other Connery films to be screened include the 1963 James Bond classic "From Russia With Love," Alfred Hitchcock's "Marnie" (1964), John Huston's "The Man Who Would Be King" (1975), Jean-Jacques Annaud's "The Name of the Rose" (1986), John McTiernan's "The Hunt for Red October" (1990) and Gus Van Sant's "Finding Forrester"(2000).

Organizers also announced the creation of three parallel awards carrying the names of individual sponsors: The Cult Prize -- named for a television network in Italy -- for documentaries; the Blockbuster Prize for out-of-competition films premiering at the Rome event; and the 3-Italia Prize -- named for an Italian mobile phone company -- for projects from young filmmakers.

The collaboration with Tribeca has been rumored for months, but the announcement Wednesday was the first official confirmation of it. Officials did not elaborate, saying only that the ties between the two festivals were "informal" and that three top Tribeca officials had made the trip to Rome for the day's briefing.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Source: REUTERS

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