Robert De Niro to open Sarajevo Film Festival

SARAJEVO (Reuters) – The Sarajevo Film Festival will honor two-time Oscar-winning U.S. actor and producer Robert De Niro with a lifetime achievement award for his contribution to film on its opening night on Friday.

“We are honored to have Robert De Niro as the first recipient of the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo – Lifetime Achievement Award,” director Mirsad Purivatra said in a statement on Monday.

De Niro will present Martin Scorsese’s digitally restored movie “Taxi Driver” in which he starred, in honor of its 40th anniversary, the statement said.

British film director Stephen Frears, who will be awarded for extraordinary contribution to the art of film, will present his latest film “Florence Foster Jenkins”.

The Sarajevo Film Festival, founded as an act of defiance towards the end of the 1992-95 siege during the Bosnian war, will show 222 films from 61 countries to an audience of about 100,000.

Its main award is the Heart of Sarajevo. An international jury will be chaired by Palestinian film-maker Elia Suleiman.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Janet Lawrence)