Classes with Scorsese to be highlight of Cannes film festival

Martin Scorsese, winner of two Academy Awards for The Departed, will be a guest of honour at this year's Cannes Film Festival, giving a master class and presenting one of the major prizes.

Scorsese will also announce the launch of the World Cinema Foundation, an organization devoted to preserving and restoring film masterpieces, at Cannes in May.

Scorsese is scheduled to give a May 24 master class on moviemaking to students and film buffs in Cannes, the festival announced Wednesday.

Stephen Frears, Nanni Moretti, Wong Kar Wai and Sydney Pollack will also give master classes at the festival, to run May 16-27.

Scorsese won the Palme d'Or in 1976 at Cannes for Taxi Driver and was president of the Cannes jury in 1998.

He will present the Caméra d'Or, the prize for the best director showing a first-time feature at Cannes, at the 2007 festival.

Scorsese has also been chosen to announce the World Cinema Foundation, an initiative by a group of directors including Alberto Luna to preserve great works of cinema, especially works that advanced the art of filmmaking.

The foundation is to be based in Geneva, but financing plans and details of the technology used in film preservation have yet to be announced.