John Travolta will receive the Lead Acting Award at the 14th Rome Film Fest for his performance in The Fanatic directed by Fred Durst, front man of Limp Bizkit. The two-time Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe and Emmy winner will receive the award on Tuesday, October 22, in the Sala Sinopoli at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, during the Close Encounter at which the actor will meet with Fest audiences.

“I’m delighted and honored to bestow this award on John Travolta for his performance in The Fanatic,” Artistic Director Antonio Monda declared. “It’s a stirring and surprising performance that succeeds in showing how dreams often turn into nightmares in Hollywood.”

During the Close Encounter, Travolta will present The Fanatic, the thriller he is currently starring in and which will be screened on Sunday, October 27. In this film, Travolta plays Moose, a film fan obsessed with his favorite actor, Hunter Dunbar. To finally meet him, his character turns to a woman photographer who knows how to find out where celebrities live; now Moose starts to stalk the actor to get that meeting he feels he deserves. His intentions seem harmless enough at first, but gradually take a sinister turn.

Travolta will also be retracing the steps of his nearly fifty-year-long career on stage, screen and television for the benefit of the Close Encounter audience. One of the most versatile and acclaimed actors of his generation, Travolta shot to global stardom thanks to his role as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever in 1977, receiving an Academy Award nod and a Golden Globes nomination for Best Actor. That success was sustained by his next effort, Grease by Randal Kleiser. In 1994, Quentin Tarantino tapped him for the lead role in Pulp Fiction; his memorable turn as Vince Vega would earn him his second Academy Award nod. Over the decades, Travolta has worked with some of the world’s preeminent contemporary filmmakers, such as Oliver Stone, Terrence Malick, Brian De Palma, Mike Nichols and John Woo.