ROME (AP) - Al Pacino kicked off the third edition of the Rome Film Festival, where he received an acting award and met with festive fans.

The Academy Award-winning actor received a prize awarded to the Actors Studio of New York — a theater workshop of which he is co-president — and attended a public meeting where he answered questions from moviegoers.

Pacino, who won the best actor Oscar for 1992's "Scent of a Woman," said Wednesday that the best tip he could give about acting was "to rehearse."

"Learn your words, and how to rehearse, and then rehearse," he told reporters ahead of the award ceremony. "My style is to allow the unconscious to be free, so you don't censor yourself."

In his latest movie, the 68-year-old actor co-stars with Robert De Niro in "Righteous Kill," a story about two policemen chasing a serial killer.

Pacino also briefly talked about his upcoming movie — "Salomaybe?" — a film inspired by Oscar Wilde's once-banned theater play on the lustful biblical character Salome.

The Rome Film Festival, which runs through Oct. 31, will host the world premiere of "8'' (Huit), a U.N.-backed movie made of eight short segments that aims to raise awareness of world poverty.

The segments are directed by Wim Wenders, Jane Campion and Gus Van Sant, among others. The film is inspired by the U.N. Millennium Development Goals which were adopted by world leaders in 2000 to cut poverty and disease and improve health care and education for the world's poor by 2015.

By MARTA FALCONI
Associated Press Writer

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