Paolo Sorrentino, BFI

Paolo Sorrentino has been making films since 2004, but it wasn't really 'til he won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film withThe Great Beauty last year, that the world really sat up and noticed.

The Italian auteur's works are love-letters to his homeland; concerned with age, politics, beauty, and the miraculous. They are rich and sad, with surreal winks - and the cinematography is pure grandeur; it swoops and waltzes.

Sorrentino's latest work, Youth, presented at this year's London Film Festival. Starring Michael Caine, Rachel Weisz and Jane Fonda. Caine plays a retired orchestra conductor, who receives an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to perform for Prince Philip's birthday. La Grande Belleza is a hard act to follow - and Youth is a quieter affair. Nevertheless, it's remarkably tender and beautifully composed.

Come and hear Sorrentino discuss Youth and his career this October at the BFI.