Nick Vivarelli/Variety/
ROME – Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences president Cheryl Boone Isaacs will be feted by Italy’s Ischia Global Film and Music Fest with its “Ischia Art Award” in recognition of the Academy’s longstanding commitment to the advancement and preservation of motion pictures.
Isaacs, the first African American and only the third woman to hold the position of Academy prexy, will attend the Ischia Social Cinema Forum on human rights, chaired by Trudie Styler, producer and founder of the Rainforest Foundation, during the 13th Edition of the informal fest to be held July 11-19 on the Italian island off the coast of Naples.
She will receive the award on July 18.
The Ischia Social Cinema Forum will also include prominent personalities active in charities such as Kerry Kennedy ( Robert Kennedy Foundation ); Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis, with his association Artists for Peace and Justice supported by David Belle ( Cine’ Institute of Jacmel, Haiti ); Neil Portnow, President of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences ; and Carolina Herrera, the Venezuelan-American fashion designer and philanthropist.
“It is an honor and a pleasure to have Cheryl Boone Isaacs join us,” Ischia Global founder and producer Pascal Vicedomini and honorary chairman Mark Canton jointly enthused in a statement.
“As president of the Academy, her commitment to integration and human rights in the world of global communication, centered around the Oscars, has been highly influential,” they added.
The Academy Archive holds more than 180,000 items, including all of the Oscar-winning films in the Best Picture category, and is home to one of the most diverse and extensive motion picture collections in the world, including the personal collections of Alfred Hitchcock, Cecil B. DeMille, George Stevens, Fred Zinnemann, Sam Peckinpah and Jim Jarmusch.
Previous recipients of the Ischia nod include directors Taylor Hackford, Julie Taymor and Mario Martone, Oscar-winning production designers Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo, and costume designer Sandy Powell.
As previously announced, Ischia this year will also fete Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos who will make the trek to receive the “Ischia Global Legend Award” in recognition of his contributions in creating the world’s first Internet TV Network, just as Netflix prepares to disembark in Italy in October.
Antonio Banderas will also be on hand to be receive an Ischia nod on July 12, and on the same evening Italian director Matteo Garrone will receive an Ischia Fantasy Award for his English-language Salma Hayek -starrer “The Tale of Tales,” which world-preemed in Cannes.
The Ischia fest is a sister event to Capri Hollywood. Both are conceived as bridge-building meets between Hollywood and the Italian and European film industries where attendees can network informally while enjoying splendid locations and luxurious accommodations.
Other expected attendees include regulars Avi Lerner, Paula Wagner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, and Italian icons Tony Renis, Franco Nero, and Lina Wertmuller.
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