Los Angeles:
Singers Lady Gaga and Diane Warren, who are nominated for the best original song Oscar, will be honoured at the 11th annual Los Angeles Italia Film, Fashion and Art Fest.
The fest, held on the eve of the Oscars, has also named the cast of Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” as ensemble cast of the year, said The Hollywood Reporter.
Warren and Gaga are nominated for the song “Til It Happens to You” from the documentary “The Hunting Ground”. Warren will accept the festival’s song of the year award in-person.
The fest will also honour composer Ennio Morricone, documentary filmmakers Matthew Heineman and Adam Benzine and that legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone.
Heineman, who is nominated for the Oscar for best documentary feature for “Cartel Land”, will receive the fest’s documentary of the year award for his look at two vigilante groups fighting against Mexican drug cartels.
Benzine, who is nominated for the Oscar for best documentary short for “Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah”, will receive the fest’s short of the year award for his portrait of the eponymous 90-year-old French filmmaker.
Actor Michael Madsen will accept the award on behalf of his “The Hateful Eight” co-stars.
Morricone, who is nominated for best original score for the film, will receive a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame on February 26.
The Los Angeles Italia fest runs every year on the eve of the Oscars at the Hollywood & Highland complex to celebrate new and established Italian and Italian-American culture.
The festival opens February 21 with the American premiere of the pope biopic Call Me Francesco, and continues through February 27.
