Italian directors Nanni Moretti and Paolo Sorrentino
are among the 19 contestants for the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film
Festival. In its 64th year, the cinema festival runs May 11 to 12. Moretti’s Habemus Papam and Sorrentino’s This Must Be the Place made the nomination list, which is Sorrentino’s
fourth nomination and Morretti’s fifth. In Italian theatres now, Moretti’s
latest film is a comedy about a newly elected pope who finds it difficult to
adjust to his important new role as spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic
world. Sorrentino’s lastest film, starring Sean Penn, Eve Hewson and Frances
McDormand, tells the story of a bored, tired rock star who sets out to find the
man who killed his father. Another Italian film great, Bernardo Bertolucci,
will receive a lifetime achievement award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The 71-year-old director will be
awarded the special Palme d’Or at the opening ceremony of the festival.
