British director Stephen Frears will be honoured by Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli on Friday during one of this week's many star-studded events at the Ischia Global Film & Music Fest.
Rutelli will present the maker of Dangerous Liaisons and The Queen with an award named after great Italian Neorealist director Luchino Visconti.
The ceremony will take place at Villa La Colombaia, Visconti's former residence on the Gulf of Naples island which is now home to a museum devoted to him.
Frears has won best director Oscar nominations for The Grifters (1990) and The Queen (2006), the story of how the British royal family reacted to Princess Diana's death in 1997.
The 65-year-old was the president of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
He is just one of an array of stars who are coming to Ischia this week, including Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, two-time Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank and three-time Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone.
Paul Haggis, the Canadian chair of the fest and the director of 2006 Academy Award-winning movie Crash, called it "the world event of the summer" at Sunday's inauguration.
Later on Sunday the festival gave Iglesias its Music Legend Award for being the "most popular Latin American artist of all time".
American singer Sheryl Crow, tenor Andrea Bocelli and Italian pop singer Laura Pausini will also receive prizes in the festival's music section.
Swank, who won best actress Academy Awards for Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby, will receive a special Ischia Legend award from the Region of Campania.
British actor Sir Ben Kingsley and Italy's Giuseppe Tornatore, the director of the Oscar-winning Cinema Paradiso, will receive Ischia Legend career awards too.
Stone, who earned Oscars for Midnight Express, Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July, will take part in the festival's Social Cinema Forum.
This will see the director discuss cinema and social issues with the public.
Mexican director Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, the maker of Babel, 21 Grams and Amores Perros, will also take part in this section of the fest.
William Monahan, who won an Oscar for his screenplay for The Departed earlier in the year, will give tips on writing for cinema at the World Script Market.
Seminars will be given by Britain's Michael Radford, the director of the 1994 Italian-language international hit Il Postino (The Postman), and Terry Gilliam, the American director and former member of the Monty Python comedy team.
The Italian previews of Smokin' Aces, the story of a Mafia turncoat starring Ray Liotta and Ben Affleck, and Mr. Brooks, a psychological thriller with Demi Moore and Kevin Costner, are on the programme of film screenings.
Special attention is being devoted to the Renaissance which Brazilian cinema is enjoying at the moment and two of the country's top directors, Helvecio Ratton and Sergio Rezende, are set to attend.
"The Ischia Global festival is an important event that can't be missed by anyone who loves show business, cinema, music and quality television," said Rutelli.
For information about the fifth edition of the festival, which runs until Sunday, check the website at www.ischiaglobal.com.
