Al Pacino wins Italian cinema award

Al Pacino has accepted a lifetime achievement award at this year’s Rome film festival. The Oscar-winner received the accolade as one of the alumni of New York’s Actor’s Studio, the celebrated drama school where he and other greats like Robert de Niro, the late Paul Newman and Marilyn Monroe learned the ropes.

“I am very honoured to be here at this Rome Film Festival, which to me is a really great opportunity to show the films and in this mecca of Italy which is a great home of the greatest films we have had,” he told the audience.

The opening film of the festival, which is in its third year, is “L’uomo Che Ama”, The Man Who Loves, starring Monica Belluci, which has its premiere tomorrow. Five other home-grown movies are in the main 20-title competition, alongside British, French and US exports.

Meanwhile, outside the venue, police broke up a crowd of demonstrators protesting against the closure of a cultural community centre in the city.