Martin Scorsese will be honored with the 13th annual Rome Film Fest's lifetime achievement award. Italian director Paolo Taviani will present the honor.  The announcement was made in Rome on Tuesday by the festival's director Antonio Monda and the head of the Fondazione Cinema per Roma, Laura Delli Colli. 

Scorsese has long had ties to Italy. His grandparents on both sides emigrated to the United States from Palermo, Sicily. In 1999, he produced a documentary on Italian filmmakers, My Voyage to Italy, and later directed Gangs of New York in 2002 in Rome's famed Cinecitta studios. The director of Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino and The Wolf of Wall Street has been nominated for 12 Academy Awards over his career, and won for best director for The Departed.