Veteran actress Shabana Azmi and her work would be honored at prestigious River To River film festival in Florence on November 22, 2013. She will be bestowed by Pegasus of the Region Tuscany Award by Cristina Scaletti, Tuscany's regional councilor of culture at the opening day of the fest.Other personalities and their films like Shyam Benegal’s Ankur, Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth, Vinay Shukla’s Godmother and Deepa Mehta’s Fire will also screen. Last year the River To River festival held a retrospective of Amitabh Bachchan's films.The 63-year-old actress said the Pegasus honour is big because when a state recognizes you, it's very heartening. “I'm honoured and humbled and grateful to the writers and directors who cast me in challenging roles. The Pegasus honour is big because when a state recognises you, it's very heartening.”As per the sources, “Encomiums and Shabana are good friends. In her career of 41 years she has collected awards, both National and popular, by the dozen and has made her presence felt at various film festivals. Shabana has had many retrospective, such as the one at the New York Film Festival where she was the first actor ever to be thus honoured as till then they did retros only of directors.”Shabana Azami was also honored at Cinematheque in Paris, at the British Film Institute London, Avignon, and Winnipeg, Toronto and in Canada.
