Also on day one of the fest, at 7 pm in Theater 4 at the Cinema Adriano, the Out of Competition lineup features the world premiere of the first episode of the six-part TV series The Last Panthers, the new international co-production by Sky Atlantic UK and Canal+, airing in Italy starting November 13, on Sky Atlantic Hd. Director of the series is the eclectic helmer of Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, Johan Renck, while the theme song opening each episode is the work of the Thin White Duke himself, David Bowie. The cast includes Samantha Morton, nominated for two Oscars® and winner of a Golden Globe®; César Award winner Tahar Rahim; and John Hurt, the two-time Oscar® nominee with extraordinary star turns for the likes of maestros such as Ridley Scott, Alan Parker, David Lynch, Michael Cimino, Sam Peckinpah, and Robert Zemeckis. On the Cinema Adriano stage to present the series: Peter Carlton, producer of This is England, which received kudos at the Rome Film Fest in 2006.

At 3 pm in Theater 4, the first of our ninth edition’s six masterclasses gets underway, conducted by Steven Van Zandt, alias Little Steven, the guitarist and rock icon who strummed alongside Bruce Springsteen in the legendary E-Street Band and became famous once more for his acting role in the HBO series The Sopranos. Van Zandt will be presiding over the jury for the International Competition and will be receiving the RomaFictionFest Excellence Award. The masterclass follows immediately after the screening of the first episode of the third season of Lilyhammer, directed by Van Zandt himself, with star turns by his own buddy Bruce Springsteen. 

There will be a special presentation at 3 pm in the Cinema Adriano’s Theater 5: the winners of the first Creativi Digitali – Projetto Zero competition, a state competition established in 2013 by the Lazio Region to support startups of audiovisual projects by young people under 35. The event will be introduced by Nicola Zingaretti, President of the Lazio Region, and Luciano Sovena, President of the Fondazione Roma Lazio Film Commission.

Meanwhile, Theater 7 at the Cinema Adriano will be hosting the first screenings in the fest sections Period Drama and Serial Crime. At 2:30 pm, TV fans can catch the first episode of the multiple-Emmy® nominee TV miniseries Wolf Hall, directed by Peter Kosminsky and based on the novels of Hilary Mantel. Set in the court of Henry VIII, it boasts a stellar cast including Damian Lewis, Jonathan Pryce, Mathieu Amalric and the latest Spider-Man Tom Holland. The Serial Crime section gets underway at 5:30 with Wataha, directed by Michal Gazda and Kasia Adamik. This Polish TV drama tackles the highly relevant theme of immigration, with its setting on the border between Poland and the Ukraine in a small, peaceful Polish village hit by a bomb that kills several people, including border guards.