Italian actor/director Toni Servillo will receive an Excellence Award at the 62nd Locarno International Film Festival (August 5-15).

While in Locarno, he will conduct a conversation with the audience. Servillo appeared in both of Italy’s 2008 Cannes hits Gomorrah and Il Divo for which he won the European Film Award for best actor.

His credits include Mario Martone’s Death Of A Neapolitan Mathematician (1992), Paolo Sorrentino’s The Consequences Of Love (2004) and Andrea Molaioli’s The Girl By The Lake (2007). He won David Di Donatello Awards for best actor for The Consequences Of Love and The Girl By The Lake.

Servillo’s early career was spent mainly in theatre. He created the Teatro Studio of Caserta in 1977 and teamed with Martone in the late 1980s to build Teatri Uniti in Naples. He is also an award-winning theatre and opera director.

Previous recipients of the Excellence Award at the festival include Oleg Menchikov, Susan Sarandon, John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Michel Piccoli and Carmen Maura.