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FILE - In this Sept. 8, 2016 file photo, Tom Hanks arrives at the premiere of "Sully" in Los Angeles. Hanks is returning to Cleveland on December 2, to headline the Greater Cleveland Film Commission’s annual fundraiser, “Behind the Camera.” Hanks started his professional acting career in Cleveland as an intern at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival. (Photo by Rich Fury/Invision/AP, File) Image Credit: AP

Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep will top a star-studded guest list at next month’s Rome film festival, organisers announced on Friday.

Hanks is to receive a lifetime achievement award on the opening day and will be honoured by a retrospective of some of his most successful films at the festival, which runs from October 13-23.

Streep is coming to do a question-and-answer session for fans as part of the promotional tour for British director Stephen Frears’ new film that she stars in: Florence Foster Jenkins.

Also booked for an interactive event is US director Oliver Stone, who will be presenting — just a few weeks before the presidential election — his latest work Snowden about the American whistle-blower.

The festival opens with Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight, an acclaimed drama about the identity problems of a young gay black man in Miami, and will feature a number of world premieres.

Among them is Naples ’44, a documentary narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch based on acclaimed British travel writer Norman Lewis’s experiences as an intelligence officer in the city at the end of the Second World War.

Other highlights include Iranian drama Immortality, Chinese 3D martial arts blockbuster Sword Master, Australian film Goldstone, and Gavin O’Connor-directed thriller The Accountant starring Ben Affleck.

The festival closes with Kolkata-based story Lion, which features Nicole Kidman and Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel.