28 October | Close Encounters with sports and entertainment, with Rosario Fiorello and Phil Jackson

There are two Close Encounters unspooling at the Rome Film Fest on Saturday afternoon, with a special focus on the worlds of sports and entertainment.
At 3 pm, Phil Jackson, the basketball coach with the most wins to his credit in the history of American professional basketball, will meet the audience at the Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna. Nicknamed the “Zen Master”, Phil Jackson reinvented the role of coach, adopting practices such as meditation and motivational psychology, exploiting elements such as Native American traditions or philosophy to draw out the best from his players, with the purpose of building tight, result-driven teams.
At 5:30 pm, a Close Encounter will feature one of Italy’s premier entertainers, Rosario Fiorello, who has just announced his return to variety shows after the smash hit third edition of his TV show “Edicola Fiore”. Over the years, Fiorello’s extraordinary versatility has been his entree to turns on the big screen as well. He appeared in The Talented Mr. Ripley by Anthony Minghella, singing the classic “Tu vuò fa’ l’americano” by Carosone alongside Matt Damon and Jude Law, and he has voiced a number of animated films, dubbing Dimitri in Anastasia, young Johan Padan in the film based on Dario Fo’s play, and Garfield the cat, and also narrated the documentary March of the Penguins.