Ischia Fest announces Oliver Stone award

Directors Oliver Stone and Dario Argento will receive the 2007 Ischia Legend Award, the Global Film & Music Fest’s most prestigious prize. The fifth edition of the festival will take place on the “Green Island” from July 9th to 15th.

The announcement was made at Cannes by Marco di Lello, the Regional Minister for Tourism and Culture of the Campania region, which supports this important summer Italian cinema event together with the Film Board of the Italian Ministry of Culture. “This event celebrates the great artistic, cultural, and tourist traditions of Ischia as well as the other pearls of the Campania region” said Di Lello during a press conference at the Noga Hilton’s I-Club, where he spoke along with representatives of the festival’s promotional committee – Marina Cicogna, producers Fulvio Lucisano and Jeremy Thomas, director Mimmo Calopresti, actress Anna Falchi. Also on hand was festival producer Pascal Vicedomini, who was visibly pleased about this latest scoop, after guaranteeing the participation of “cult” directors like Alejandro González Iñárritu and Paul Haggis (who is even Chairman of the event) and Oscar winners Davis Guggenheim (director of An Inconvenient Truth), William Monahan (screenwriter of The Departed), Bobby Moresco (screenwriter of Crash) and Gustavo Santaolalla (composer of the music for Brokeback Mountain and Babel).

Oliver Stone,with his eleven nominations and three Oscars, is a piece of world cinema history. A Vietnam veteran and pupil of Martin Scorsese, Stone began his extraordinary career as a screenwriter by writing masterpieces such as Midnight Run, Scarface, and The Year of the Dragon.
All of his films are characterized by a profound sense of civil and moral commitment. Already in 1986 after Salvador he was consecrated by the world star system with Platoon, winner of four Academy Awards and the first act of the Vietnam trilogy that includess Born on the Fourth of July (1989, Oscar for Best Director) and Between Heaven and Earth (1993). Between 1987 and 1991 he shot Wall Street with Michael Douglas, the psychedelic biography of Jim Morrison The Doors, and the spectacular film-investigation JFK. In 1994 he realized one of Quentin Tarantino’s most disturbing subjects: Natural Born Killers and last year he honored the heroes of the World Trade Center. He was the only American director to interview Fidel Castro. Currently Oliver Stone, who describes himself as a Buddhist and an anarchist, refused to direct the sequel to Wall Street. He is currently working on Jawbreaker, a film that tells the story of the American government’s hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

In recent days Stone has once again found himself in the midst of controversy for having made a television commercial in favor of withdrawing US troops from Iraq. He defines the presence of US troops “immoral” using the voice of Ron Kovic, the American soldier played by Tom Cruise in the film Born on the Fourth of July.

Dario Argento is one of world cinema’s cult directors: the 60th Cannes Festival is honoring him these days by presenting a new edition of Suspiria. In the fall his film The Three Mothers is coming out, featuring his daughter Asia who has already worked with him in Trauma, The Stendhal Syndrome, and The Phantom of the Opera. His big successes The Bird with Crystal Feathers, The Nine-tailed Cat, Four Grey Velvet Flies , and Deep Red are now considered classics.
His films are the only ones recognized by great directors across the ocean as a European point of reference as far as creating suspense is concerned..

The fifth Ischia Global Film & Music Fest is promoted by the International Art Academy of Ischia and the Tourist Agency of the Islands of Ischia and Procida, in collaboration with Caffè Kimbo, Fiuggi mineral water, and the Venice Casino. The festival is also sponsored by Cinecittà Holding, the Chamber of Commerce of Naples, and Medmar.

For information: info@ischiaglobal.com www.ischiaglobal.com
Press Office: De Lucia/Leveque email: delev@iol.com