The filmmaker behind The Traitor and Vincere will receive his honorary Palme d’Or at the closing ceremony of the 74th Cannes Film Festival.
Cannes Film Festival will pay tribute to veteran Italian director Marco Bellocchio, giving the filmmaker behind The Traitor (2019), Vincere (2009), and The Nanny (1999) a lifetime achievement Palme d’Or.
Bellocchio is a regular on the Croisette, having screened seven films in competition in Cannes, starting with A Leap in the Dark in 1980 and most recently gracing the festival red carpet with the 2019 drama The Traitor. Bellocchio will receive his honorary Palme d’Or at the festival’s closing ceremony on July 17. On July 16, the director will also screen his latest, the documentary Marx Can Wait, as part of Cannes’ non-competition Cannes Premiere section.
Bellocchio, who is 81, is credited with pioneering a new wave of Italian cinema in the mid-1960s, starting with his debut feature, the cult film Fists in the Pocket (1965), which broke from the traditions of Italian Neo-realism to embrace more genre-influenced drama.
He made his mark in Cannes with A Leap in the Dark, which won best actor and best actress honors for stars Michel Piccoli and Anouk Aimée.
The Traitor, which premiered in competition in 2019, marked a late-career resurgence for Bellocchio. The mafia drama, based on the real-life of mafia informant Tommaso Buscetta, the so-called “boss of the two worlds,” was a box office hit in Italy and sold widely after its Cannes market debut, with Sony Pictures Classics taking U.S. rights and the Match Factory closing deals across dozens of international territories.
Bellocchio joins fellow Palme d’Or honoree Jodie Foster, who will receive Cannes’ lifetime achievement award at the opening ceremony of the 74th festival on July 6.