The Ambassador of Italy to Washington, Mariangela Zappia, has presented the International Spotlight 2021 Award to the Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino for his film “E’ stata la mano di Dio” [“The Hand of God”]. Sorrentino’s film was selected along with ”A, Chiara” by director Jonas Carpignano, to represent Italy at the 2021 edition of the Middleburg Film Festival.
The Festival, which takes place at various locations around the town of Middleburg in Virginia, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, attracts international spectators and is recognised as one of the “stops on the road to the Oscars”. The 9th edition of the Middleburg Film Festival, which has returned to physical attendance, included four days of screenings of carefully selected films from Oscar nominated movies, foreign language films, feature films, and independent documentaries with a strong focus on the theme of diversity. The other prizewinners include the writer and director Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”), the actors Ann Dowd (“Mass”) and Dakota Johnson (“The Lost Daughter”), the ensemble cast of A24’s “Red Rocket”, the director of photography Ari Wegner (“The Power of the Dog”), and the composer and songwriter Charles Fox.
