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.
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