Paolo Sorrentino to receive honorary award at Zurich Film Festival
In demand: Paolo Sorrentino signs autographs at the Venice International Film Festival in 2019.
Keystone / Ettore Ferrari
Italian director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino (La Grande Bellezza) will receive an honorary award for his work at the 17th Zurich Film Festival (ZFF).
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The “A Tribute to… Award” will be presented to the auteur filmmaker at the premiere of his new film, The Hand of God, on September 29, the ZFF said in a statementExternal link on Thursday.
“I am happy and honoured to receive this award, because it is always nice to be celebrated and because this recognition comes from a festival whose mission is in the discovery of talent,” Sorrentino said.
Sorrentino, born in Naples in 1970, has been making films for 20 years. His drama This Must Be The Place (2011) was shown at the 7th ZFF, and the political feature film Loro (Them, 2018) made it into the official selection for the 14th edition. La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty, 2013) won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
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“For me, Paolo Sorrentino is the true descendant of Fellini in Italian auteur cinema,” said ZFF Artistic Director Christian Jungen. “He understands cinema as art and as a means of social criticism. He ignites a veritable aesthetic fireworks display in his works and captures the spiritual condition of Italy with an anthropological eye, where the sacred and the profane coexist.”
Contribution to film history
The title of Sorrentino’s new film The Hand of God refers to Diego Maradona’s legendary – and rule-breaking – goal at the 1986 World Cup against England; the Argentinian football star attributed his handball to the hand of God. The Netflix tragicomedy, Sorrentino’s most personal film, tells the story of a boy in 1980s Naples who enthusiastically awaits Maradona’s arrival.
Previous winners of the award, which recognises auteur filmmakers for their contribution to film history, include Wim Wenders, Claire Denis, Michael Haneke and Maïwenn.
The Zurich Film Festival will take place this year from September 23 to October 3.
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