Martin Scorsese to receive Lifetime Achievement Award at Rome Film Fest

Veteran director Martin Scorsese will be conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Rome Film Fest.

The announcement was made by director Antonio Monda and Laura Delli Colli, the head of the Fondazione Cinema per Roma, the festival organisers said in a statement.

Italian director Paolo Taviani will present the award to Scorsese, who is best known for modern American classics such as "Taxi Driver", "Raging Bull", "Goodfellas", "The Aviator" and "The Departed".

"I am extremely honored to bestow the Lifetime Achievement Award to a Cinema Master," Monda said.

"I am thrilled and moved to celebrate Martin Scorsese, not only as a great director but also for his extraordinary and priceless contribution to the rediscovery of great classic movies and, most of all, of Italian Cinema," he added.

Scorsese has long had ties to Italy as his grandparents on both sides had emigrated to the United States from Palermo, Sicily.

His 2002 film "Gangs of New York", featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis, was shot in Rome's famed Cinecitta studios.

The 13th edition of the famed film festival will run from October 18-28.