South Korean director Park Chan-wook will receive an award from Italy's Florence city government in recognition of his contribution to the development of culture-arts, film industry officials said Thursday.

Park will be given the Key of the City by Florence Mayor Dario Nardella in a ceremony to be held on Saturday, they said. The filmmaker is in Italy to attend the 15th Florence Korea Film Festival that opens on Thursday.

The symbolic Key of the City is a historical award given to people of importance in the cultural arts field to the city.

Among the honorees are the late Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti who received the award in 1994.

The "Old Boy" director is well known in Italy for his films highly acclaimed in European film festivals such as Cannes and Venice.This year's Florence Korea Film Festival will give a retrospective screening of his 15 feature and short films, the first of its kind in Italy.

This file photo shows South Korean director Park Chan-wook. (Yonhap)

Park is scheduled to have a talk session with his fans after the screening of his latest film "The Handmaiden" at La Compagnia theater in the city center Saturday. Earlier in the day, he is to host a master class at the same location.

The annual film festival will run for eight days till next Thursday, featuring 43 Korean feature and short films led by Kim Jee-woon's "The Age of Shadows." It will be closed with Kim Ki-duk's "The Net." (Yonhap)

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