Screenwriter Tonino Guerra will be feted at the 2011 Writers Guild Awards West Coast ceremony on Feb 5 in Hollywood.

Iconic Italian screenwriter Tonino Guerra is to receive the Writers Guild of America, West’s 2011 Jean Renoir Award for Screenwriting Achievement.

Guerra wrote over 100 screenplays, including L’avventura, La notte, L’eclisse, Red Desert, Blow-Up, and Zabriskie Point for Michelangelo Antonioni; Amarcord for Federico Fellini and Nostalghia for Andrei Tarkovsky.

Over the course of his career, Guerra received three Academy Award nominations (Amarcord, Blow-Up and Casanova 70) a Best Screenplay Award at Cannes for Voyage to Cythera and numerous lifetime achievement awards.

“Guerra’s work is the brave and moral thread that runs through the fabric of modernist cinema. He is a breathtaking poet, a generous collaborator, and is possessed of the largest heart. We are fortunate to have him among us and thrilled to honour his astonishing –- and astonishingly influential –- body of work,” said WGAW board of directors member Howard A. Rodman.

The 90-year-old Guerra is unable to travel to Los Angeles to accept his award, but will receive it at his home in northern Italy.

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