Pedro Almodóvar awarded, heckled in Italy

BBC News reports that out director Pedro Almodovar was jeered by animal rights activists in Italy, where the director was accepting a special prize. Almodovar received the European prize at Italy's Nastro D'Argent awards, the country's oldest film awards, in a packed 7,000-seat Greek amphitheater in Sicily. However, animal rights protesters hissed loudly when he came to the stage, angered over the deaths of four bulls during the shooting of Almodovar's newest film, Talk to Her. Animal Amnesty in Madrid has already filed a complaint with the city's regional environmental department, claiming that the director and his production company, El Deseo, violated an animal protection law demanding that film scenes that present cruelty to animals must be staged. El Deseo insists it had the proper permits to kill the animals at the bullring in Aranjuez.