The movies.The Departed, the new film by Martin Scorsese starring Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon; Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, hilarious mockumentary on a Kazakh journalist sent to the US; the lastest film of the Oscar-winning filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore, La sconosciuta / The Unknown; Roberto Ando´s Viaggio segreto starring Claudia Gerini and Emir Kusturica; The Hoax, starring Richard Gere and directed by the Swedish-born Lasse Hallström; Christofer Nolan´s The Prestige, starring Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson e David Bowie; Le Concile de Pierre – The Stone Council by Guillaume Nicloux, with the couple of actresses Catherine Deneuve and the Italian Monica Bellucci, who plays as well in Paolo Virzì´s N (Io e Napoleone); Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus with Nicole Kidman under the direction of Steven Shainberg; the latest work of the Indian filmmaker Mira Nair, The Namesake; Augustìn Dìaz Yanez´ Alatriste, starring Viggo Mortensen. These are some of the titles that compose the Première and Special Events sections.

But also lots of cinema d´auteur in the Competition section, like Francesca Comencini´s A casa nostra and Otar Iosseliani´s Jardins en Automne / Gardens in Autumn; Japanese cult filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto´s Akumu tantei / Nightmare Detective; the film L’héritage / The Legacy jointly directed by the father and son Temur e Gela Babluani; Davide Ferrario´s documentary La strada di Levi / Primo Levi´s Journey and Robert Guediguian´s Le voyage en Armenie. Besides, the whole lot of special products in the Extra section, with Le Dernier Caravansérail, by Ariane Mnouchikine with the Théâtre du Soleil, Italian artist Pippo Delbono´s Il grido, Marco Bellocchio´s Sorelle, Ritratto di uno sconosciuto, on the life of the Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, the satyrical comedy Fascisti su Marte by Corrado Guzzanti, Margherita Ferrandino and Giovanni Veronesi´s Muoiono soltanto gli… and Gianfranco Giagni´s Sartoria Tirelli – Vestire il cinema.

 

The Press Conference. The program of the first edition of the RomeFilmFest was presented today at a press conference held in the Sinopoli Hall at the Auditorium, as well as the events and the schedule of the screenings. The complete press release will be online today. In attendace were Goffredo Bettini (president of the RomeFilmFest), Carlo Fuortes (CEO of the Musica per Roma Foundation), Giorgio Gosetti (general director of the RomeFilmFest), Mario Sesti (Advisory Board Coordinator and manager of The Actor´s Craft section), Piera Detassis (manager of the Première section), Teresa Cavina (International Program Manager), Gianluca Giannelli (Manager of the Alice nella città section), the Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni, the President of the Lazio Region Piero Marrazzo, the president of the Rome Province Enrico Gasbarra, the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Rome Andrea Mondello, the President of the BNL – Gruppo BNP Paribas Luigi Abete and Isabella Rossellini, presenter of the exhibition Nel nome del Padre, della Figlia e degli Spiriti Santi (In the name of the Father, the Daughter and the Holy Spirit), opened at the end of the press conference.

 

The figures. Regarding the figures, 95 features will be screened, among feature films, documentaries, shorts and medium length movies. Besides, the Alice nella Città section, that amounts to 21 feature films and 20 shorts. Finally, the 29 movies belonging to the retrospectives (Tribute to Sean Connery, The Actors Studio and the 50´s, and Marcello Mastroianni, the 11 movies part of the New Cinema Network. The Competition is composed by 16 movies, with another 3 Out of the Competition, 1 president of the Jury, Ettore Scola, heading 50 juries. The official awards are 3, for Best Film, Actor and Actress, and the Acting Award to the lifetime career, whose recipient for the first edition is Sean Connery, three parallel awards, for Best Documentary (Cult), Best Première (Blockbuster) and Best Italian Actor (Lara), as well as an award for for the best actor management agent. 4 exhibitions at the Auditorium venues: Rossellini, Visconti, Bertolucci and Digital Party. 3 big music concerts, featuring Riccardo Muti, Ennio Morricone and Antonio Papano. On October 19th, the big event “Il cinema va di moda” (Cinema goes fashion) and on the 21st, a Fellini-ish party will close 9 intense days of cinema. Around 60 world sales companies and more than 250 buyers will take part at The Business Street, to be held at Via Veneto.