YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. Italian film director Ermanno Olmi has passed away at the age of 86, ANSA reported.

Perhaps his best known film is The Tree of Wooden Clogs (L'Albero degli zoccoli), which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival. 

In 1988, his La leggenda del santo bevitore (The Legend of the Holy Drinker), based on the novella by Joseph Roth and starring Rutger Hauer, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival as well as a David di Donatello award.

In 2008 Olmi received the Honorary Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Olmi was born in Bergamo, Lombardy in 1931.

The exact cause of death is not know, but Olmi had reportedly been ill for some time.

Olmi died in a hospital in Asiago, Northern Italy. 

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan Kocharyan