Rome to honour Steve McQueen with lifetime award at 2020 film festival.

Rome Film Fest has unveiled the programme for its 15th edition which - in these increasingly virtual times - is scheduled to take place as a physical event with digital elements from 15-25 October.

The 2020 festival opens with Disney and Pixar’s existential animated film Soul and closes with Cosa sarà by Francesco Bruni, with much of the action taking place at the Auditorium Parco della Musica.

The official section comprises 24 films and documentaries, most of which have received critical acclaim at other major festivals, including three titles from Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology: Mangrove; Lovers Rock; and Red, White And Blue.

The British filmmaker is due to attend the festival and will receive a lifetime achievement award.

Other special guests, set to appear in person, include Thomas Vinterberg and François Ozon, who will present their movies Another Round and Summer Of 85 respectively.

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In addition they will participate in public conversations as part of Rome’s Close Encounters strand, along with British author Zadie Smith, American cult filmmaker and actor John Waters, and British musician Thom Yorke of Radiohead fame.

Other films in the official line-up include Francis Lee’s Ammonite, Naomi Kawase’s True Mothers, Lucas Belvaux’s Home Front, Laurent Tirard’s The Speech, and Fernando Trueba’s Forgotten We’ll Be.

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Peter Docter, the director of the opening film Soul, will receive a lifetime achievement award remotely.

The festival's digital platform RFF15 will include other virtual appearances by other filmmakers including La La Land director Damien Chazelle, who will conduct a musicals masterclass on musicals, and Werner Herzog, whose Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds is part of the official selection and will be available exclusively via the virtual screening room on the RFF15 platform.

This year's festival, dedicated to the late Italian composer Ennio Morricone, will also hold screenings at the newly-established 'Fiume district' comprising five cinemas in the area around Piazza Fiume, in addition to its Auditorium Parco della Musica base.

Rome Film Fest artistic director Antonio Monda says he is "confident we have put together a top-notch programme" but acknowledges the "climate of total uncertainty" due to logistical complications arising from the covid-19 pandemic.

For full details see Rome Film Fest website.