The 31st Sarajevo Film Festival has announced that acclaimed Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino will be honoured with the prestigious Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award. The festival will celebrate the director's distinguished career with a comprehensive retrospective of his work as part of the "Tribute to" programme.

The tribute will include a complete retrospective of Sorrentino's filmography, alongside a master class where the filmmaker will engage with audiences about contemporary cinema and his artistic vision.

Festival director Jovan Marjanović praised Sorrentino's unique ability to transform personal narratives into universal stories. “Paolo Sorrentino has managed to do what every filmmaker dreams of – he has made a global impact through local, personal stories. With a visually luxurious, emotional and intellectually insightful style, he has won the hearts of audiences around the world, who saw his characters, no matter how eccentric or withdrawn, as a mirror of our world – often absurd, sometimes cruel, but always deeply human.”

Born in Naples in 1970, Sorrentino began his feature-film career with One Man Up [+leggi anche:
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The director's relationship with the Cannes Film Festival has been particularly fruitful. The Consequences of Love (2004) and The Family Friend (2006) both competed for the Palme d'Or, while Il Divo [+leggi anche:
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His 2021 semi-autobiographical film The Hand of God [+leggi anche:
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Most recently, Sorrentino's Parthenope [+leggi anche:
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The Honorary Heart of Sarajevo, established in 2005, recognises individuals who have made exceptional contributions to cinema and supported the development of the film industry. Sorrentino thus joins a distinguished list of previous recipients who have been celebrated for their artistic achievements and cultural impact.