Italian director Ermanno Olmi, winner of '78 Palme d'Or, dies

ROME -- Ermanno Olmi, one of the giants of Italian cinema who won the top award at Cannes for "The Tree of Wooden Clogs," has died at age 86.

Olmi died Monday in the northern Italian city of Asiago, where a day of mourning is planned for his funeral, Mayor Roberto Rigoni Stern told the ANSA news agency.

Condolences poured in from Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni and Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, who praised Olmi's "poetry," that explored the relation between man and nature, work and spirituality.

Olmi's "L'Albero degli Zoccoli" (The Tree of Wooden Clogs), about life on a Lombardy farm at the end of the 19th century, won the 1978 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2008, he was honoured with a Career Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.