Renzo Rossellini will receive the Locarno Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award

The Locarno Film Festival will pay tribute to Italian producer and director Renzo Rossellini by presenting him with a Lifetime Achievement Award, organizers said on Thursday.

The award ceremony in Piazza Grande of the Swiss town, on August 10, will be followed by the screening of Federico Fellini’s film The city of women (City of women, 1980), of which Rossellini was the producer. On August 11, Rossellini, whose half-sister is Italian star Isabella Rossellini, will take part in a panel discussion at the festival.

“As a producer for directors of the caliber of Federico Fellini, Lina Wertmüller, Werner Herzog and Francis Ford Coppola, but also as an assistant director (for his father Roberto and, among others, François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol) and director in his right, Renzo Rossellini has never stopped trying to pass on his knowledge of cinema, teaching generations of students and filmmakers with passion and commitment.

Giona A. Nazzaro, artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival, declared: “Cinema is a tool for getting to know the world: Renzo Rossellini imparted this lesson without sparing himself, becoming a key figure of modern cinema. His love of cinema came from his family and remained with him throughout his life. Equipped with unerring instincts and driven by his passion, he has left a deep and lasting mark. Celebrating a man of cinema like Renzo Rossellini today is a way of paying homage to what is dearest to us in cinema itself”.

The Locarno Lifetime Honor was created in 2011. Previous honorees include Harrison Ford (2011), Alain Delon (2012), Jacqueline Bisset (2013), Harvey Keitel (2016), Dario Argento (2021) and Matt Dillon ( 2022).

Independent cinema pioneer Harmony Korine will also be awarded at the Locarno Film Festival with the Pardo d’onore Manor, the Leopard of Honor award, for “outstanding achievement in cinema”.

The 76th edition of the festival will take place from 2 August to 2 August. 12.