Abel Ferrera To Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at Trieste Science+Fiction Festival

Science Fiction might not be the first genre that comes to mind when one thinks of Abel Ferrera. But his unique style of gritty realism has often crossed paths with musings on the future, dangers from the beyond, and the fantastical weirdness of life, in films such as Body Snatchers, Siberia, and one of my favourites of his films, 4:44 Last Night on Earth. And his new film Zeros and Ones is set in a post-apocalypse Rome (always nice to have a post-apocalypse story set in an older European city which gives such a greate scope of time).

So it is fitting that the iconic New York-bred, Italy-based director receive a lifetimne achievement award from Italy's preeminant sci fi fest. Full details in the press release below, and for those attending, I wish I could be with you!

Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, taking place live in Trieste and online on the  SciFiClub di Mymovies platform from October 27 to November 3, will award iconic director and master of genre Abel Ferrara the 21st edition Life Achievement Asteroid.

Abel Ferrara will receive the award at the official ceremony at 8 p.m. on Monday, November 1 at the Politeama Rossetti theatre in Trieste, followed by the premiere of his latest movie Zeros and Ones, starring Ethan Hawke: a thriller with noir undertones about lockdown and war, danger and espionage, American soldiers, Chinese negotiators, Middle East saints, agitators, diplomats, corrupt KGB and Mossad agents, whistleblowers, murderers and rebels.  Written during the first bout of the pandemic, the movie follows the story of J.J., an American soldier in  post-apocalyptic Rome in full lockdown following epidemic and war. The Vatican has been hit by numerous explosions and the protagonist will need to take action to fight an unknown enemy threatening the whole world.

Born in the Bronx, New York on July 19th 1951, Abel Ferrara directed his first Super 8 films as a teenager and entered into early collaborations with screenwriters Nicholas St. John and John McIntyre. In the late 1970s, he made his first feature films, Driller Killer and Ms .45. In the 1980s and 1990s, his international successes included King of New York, Bad Lieutenant, Body Snatchers, The Addiction and The Funeral. 
Bad Lieutenant, starring Harvey Keitel, was presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 1992 in the section Un Certain Regard. One year later, Ferrara returned to Cannes, this time in Official Selection, with Body Snatchers. The Addiction, starring Christopher Walken, was selected for the Berlinale in 1995 and The Funeral, starring Benicio Del Toro, Christopher Walken and Isabella Rossellini, won two awards at the Venice Film Festival in 1996. Mary, starring Juliette Binoche, Forest Whitaker and Heather Graham won four awards in Venice in 2005.


In 2011, Ferrara won the Honorary Leopard at Locarno. The years 2010 marked Ferrara’s collaboration with Willem Dafoe who starred in 4:44 Last Day on Earth (2012), screened in Venice, Alive in France (2017), presented at Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight, Pasolini (2014) also screened in Venice, Tommaso (2019), and more recently Siberia, screened at the last Berlinale.