2023-10-17 19:54:34
Time.news – Everything is ready in a Rome where autumn has recently officially entered, with rain and temperatures finally in line with October, for the 18th edition of the Rome Film Festival. An edition, the second of the Farinelli-Malanga couple, president and artistic director, unusually autarchic.
There are few international stars, all mostly European and, obviously, Italian (Gian Luca Farinelli listed some of them during the presentation press conference: Cannes winner Justine Triet, Juliette Binoche, Jonathan Glazer, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Monica Bellucci, Isabella Rossellini, Jasmine Trinca, Sergio Rubini, Ferzan Ozpetek, Antonio Albanese, Christian De Sica. And then Zucchero, Dario Argento, Terence Hill).
There are many Italian films, from those in the main sections – Progressive cinema, Grand Public and Freestyle – to special screenings, to Besyt of, from films to documentaries to short films to restored films. The 18th edition of this festival, born with great ambitions (and economic resources) and slowly – and wisely – becoming more of a party than a competitive event, begins on Wednesday 18 October.
For a few years now, despite maintaining the name of ‘festival’, the competition has returned but, upon closer inspection, it is perhaps just a quirk (like that of extending the duration of the event by one day “so as to be like all the great festivals”). .
The strength of the Rome Film Festival, in fact, lies precisely in this popular characteristic, in its running along a network that touches many places in the city and not only the Auditorium (also the Casa del Cinema, the Maxxi, the Teatro Palladium, the Julius Caesar cinema) attracting the public to the cinema. A race in which the big sister (now in its 21st year) participates – often as a protagonist – an independent and parallel event of the Festival, Alice in the city.
This 18th edition of the Rome Film Festival is dedicated to Giuliano Montaldo, a great filmmaker who passed away on 6 September at the age of 93, and this year also commemorates the anniversary of Anna Magnani, who passed away on 26 September 50 years ago whose image stands out in the posters of this edition.
We start on the 18th with the film that marks Paola Cortellesi’s directorial debut ‘C’è Ancora Tomorrow’, which the artistic director Paola Malanga, presenting the main section of the festival competition, said will be the title that the Festival will adopt as philosophy. For a festival that was born without a defined narrative line and which will take place from 18 to 29 October 2023 at the Ennio Morricone Auditorium Parco della Musica, involving numerous other places and cultural realities of the Capital.
This year the event will have films and documentaries from 28 countries, but it will not have a well-defined narrative thread. Upon closer inspection, this directorial debut by Italian actors could constitute a genre in itself: in addition to Cortellesi in the Progressive Cinema competition, in fact, Michele Riondino debuts with ‘Palazzina Laf’ and Margherita Buy with ‘Vincere’, both in the non-competitive Grand section Public. (
Then there is Kasia Smutniak with a documentary film written and directed by her, produced by Domenico Procacci, ‘Mur’, which will be presented as a special screening, in which she talks about her country, Poland, which stood out for its timeliness and generosity in welcoming Ukrainians fleeing the war, the same country that has just started building the most expensive wall in Europe to prevent the entry of more refugees.
Then there are also two debuting directors who present two short films: Giovanna Mezzogiorno who brings her ‘Unfitting’ to the phenomenon of body shiemng of which she was a victim, while within the Alice nella città exhibition there will be a screening of ‘Come un fiore ‘, a short film by Benedicta Boccoli produced by Andromeda Film / Helios Film The Festival this year starts on a Wednesday and lasts one day longer than in 2022, lasting the same length as other famous international festivals.
Alice in the City will start at the same time as the Festival. Three of the most anticipated films of the independent and parallel event: ‘How To Have Sex’ by Molly Manning Walker which won over audiences and critics at the Cannes Film Festival by winning the ‘Un certain regard’ section and ‘One Life’ by James Hawes, a film about the Holocaust “that talks about life”, with Anthony Hopkins and a funny Helena Bonham Carter, opening and closing film, but also ‘The Boy and the Heron’ (Kimitachi wa do ikiru ka) by the visionary Oscar-winning director Hayao Miyazaki .
There is also anticipation for ‘Trolls 3 – all together’, the third chapter of the saga directed by Walt Dohrn and for the presentation of the first two episodes of the fourth season of the TV series ‘Mare Fuori’ in the presence of the cast. For Alice in the City, dedicated to young people, talent and debuts, now in its 21st edition, screenings and events are scheduled at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, the Auditorium della Conciliazione, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, the Cinema Adriano and at the Cinema Giulio Cesare in Rome.
Alice nella città presents a program of world premieres, directorial debuts and original confirmations: 10 works in the Competition and 4 films Out of Competition to which are added, in the competitive Panorama Italia section, 8 films in competition and 4 special screenings which place the emphasis on independent Italian cinema, with screenings of films and documentaries.
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