Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” will receive the ‘Best Original Screenplay Award’ at the 24^th annual Capri, Hollywood – The International Film Festival, it was announced here today by Tony Renis, the festival’s honorary president. It was further revealed that Steven Zaillian, an Academy Award® recipient for Spielberg’s “Schindler's List,” will be on the Blue Island,  to accept the award during the festival’s December 27 to January 2 run.

Capri, Hollywood is known as a “charmed” stopping point for films on the road to year-end awards.

In making the announcement, Renis said: “‘The Irishman’ is considered to be one of Scorsese’s greatest films and Zaillian’s script is a true masterpiece. The talented writer is a long-time collaborator of the Italian-American maestro as well as many other great auteurs. His  script is a perfect piece of work, which has resulted in remarkable performances brought to life by such movie stars as Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci.” 

“The Irishman” will be streamed starting November 27 by Netflix. The movie is said to be one of the leading contenders in the 2020 Golden Globes and Oscar’s race.  Zaillian, the American screenwriter, director and producer  is one of Hollywood most influential personalities, but he also enjoys a strong bond with Italy where he will soon write and direct a TV series based on Patricia Highsmith’s novels “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” some twenty years after the release of Anthony Minghella’s acclaimed feature film of the same name.

“The Irishman” is not the first gangster movie penned by Zaillian, who has also written the screenplays of Ridley Scott’s “American Gangster” and Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York.” He was the author of HBO’s highly acclaimed miniseries “The Night Of,” and has recently created and written the historical period drama television miniseries “Cortés” starring Javier Bardem.

It was previously announced that Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor,” the Italian movie that has been selected to compete for Best International Feature Film at the 2020 Oscars has been named the festival’s ‘Best International Feature Film of the Year.’

The festival is presented by the Capri in the World Institute, with the support of Mibact-Dg Cinema and Italy’s Campania Region in collaboration with numerous private sponsors.