On the seventh day of the Rome Film Fest, one of its most popular events in this tenth edition, Close Encounters, is back for an encore. Thursday, October 22, at 5:30 p.m., the Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna in the Auditorium Parco della Musica will be hosting a talk with Todd Haynes, one of America’s most acclaimed directors on the independent film scene. Starting with his debut film, Poison, the Californian filmmaker instantly came to the attention of audiences and critics with a certain sensibility, thanks to his original style, unconventional to the point of being subversive. All his films have been screened and lauded at the most prestigious international festivals, from Cannes and Venice to Sundance. Far from Heaven, considered to be Haynes’ masterpiece, racked up a number of nominations for the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. On this occasion, Haynes will be treating them to a screening of his latest film,Carol, which competed at Cannes last April and earned Rooney Mara the award for best actress. The screening gets underway at 7:30 p.m. in the Sala Sinopoli.

Three films from the Official Selection premiere on Thursday. First up, at 8 p.m. in the Sala Petrassi, is Ouragan, l’odysee d’un vent by Cyril Barbançon and Andy Byatt. This documentary takes viewers on a spectacular 3D journey that is 15,000 kilometres long, tracking down one of the most devastating events our planet knows: the Atlantic hurricane. Yet with all its terror and destruction, such hurricanes are essential for life on earth.  Here the hurricane is the star of the film, while the rest of the cast is the men, women, plants and animals that cross its path, all of whom are affected by its force, for better or for worse.

Next up in the same theatre, at 10:30 p.m., is the screening of Full Contact, the sixth feature by David Verbeek, director of R U There, which premiered at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section. In his latest film, the Dutch filmmaker transcends the boundary that divides fact and fiction. The main character is a hyper-modern hunter, at the top of the technological ladder, who looks down on his prey like an all-powerful voyeur. His life changes when he accidentally bombs a school with a remote-controlled drone, and although modern warfare keeps him unharmed far from all his victims, after the accident Ivan begins to disconnect from everyone and everything. The film takes us on a tour of his fantasies and nightmares.

Meanwhile at 9:30 p.m. the Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna is hosting a screening of Amama by Asier Altuna, twice nominated for a Goya as best new director and for best documentary short. The Basque filmmaker has set his story in a Baserri, a traditional farmhouse in the countryside. Conditions in such places can seem backward and harsh, and the inhabitants feel trapped in a fate imposed at birth. Tomas and Ixabel’s three children know this world inside out, and each of them copes with it in their own way, fighting it with humour, rejecting it and fleeing, or exorcizing their problems through art. Grandmother Amama placidly observes her family’s fate and that of a world that seems to be fading before her eyes.

After a first-time look at the documentary Ridendo e scherzando, directed by Ettore Scola’s daughters Paola and Silvia, the tribute to Scola continues with the screening of one of his best-loved films, La terrazza, about the social lives and private disappointments of five characters from Rome’s high society. The film competed at Cannes and won the award for best screenplay, as well as the award for best supporting actress, which went to Carla Gravina. The film, restored by CSC – Cineteca Nazionale in a collaboration with Dean Film, will be presented at 4:30 p.m. in the Sala Petrassi.

At 1 p.m. in the Studio 3, the Rome Film Fest pays homage to Morando Morandini with a screening of a documentary by Daniele Segre, Je m’appelle Morando – alfabeto Morandini. Piera Detassis, Giorgio Gosetti, Paolo Mereghetti and Mario Sesti will reminisce about one of Italy’s preeminent film critics, whose career spanned the post-war period to the present day; Morandini also wrote a well-known film dictionary. His daughter Lia Morandini will be on hand for the occasion, along with the Fest’s artistic director Antonio Monda and the filmmaker Segre himself.

On tomorrow’s line-up in the “A Journey into the World of Pixar” retrospective, Monsters & Co., by Pete Docter, David Silverman, and Lee Unkrich, will be screened at 5 p.m in the Mazda Cinema Hall, preceded by Ralph Eggleston’s short For the Birds. 

Meanwhile, over at the MAXXI at 7 p.m., the Riflessi section unfolds with a screening of Una magia saracena by Vincenzo Stango. The film is set in the future, in a completely digitized society; the main character, Leonardo, in prison for opposing the regime, launches into the history of mathematics. Euclid, Archimede, Pythagorus, Descartes and Fibonacci all duly come to life, revealing the myriad connections between art and mathematics. Following Stango’s film at the MAXXI, at 9:30 p.m., the retrospective devoted to Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín resumes with No, the last film in his trilogy about the rise and fall of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Starring Gael García Bernal, the film was nominated for an Oscar® for Best Foreign Language Film.

The 10th Rome Film Fest also unfolds in cinemas across the city with a variety of screenings. At 9 p.m. at the Cinema Greenwich, Massimo Saccares’ Tevere will be screened; this is the last of three films on the Hidden City programme that explores the city of Rome, its surprising natural settings, its lesser-known personalities and anecdotes. Tevere takes audiences on a journey from the river’s source to its mouth, as it wends its way through the capital, its story told by those who live by the river and love it.

Earlier in the day, at 4 p.m., the Cinema Greenwich hosts two repeat screenings: at 4 p.m., La delgada linea amarilla by Celso García, and at 6:30 p.m., The Confessions of Thomas Quick by Brian Hill.

Festivalgoers also get a second chance at seeing a number of films in the Official Selection at the Cinema Alcazar: at 4 p.m., Eva no duerme; at 6 p.m., LittleBird; at 8 p.m. Fargo 2; and at 10:30 p.m. Angry Indian Goddesses by Pan Nalin. The Nuovo Cinema Aquila will also be hosting two repeat screenings of films in the Official Selection: at 4 p.m. Land of Mine by Martin Zandvliet, and at 8 p.m. Dobbiamo parlare by Sergio Rubini.

The parallel and independent sidebar Alice nella città has four screenings on its line-up on Thursday. At 11 a.m. in the Sala Sinopoli, The New Classmate
 by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari; at 2 p.m. in the Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna, Grandma by Paul Weitz; at 6:30 p.m. at the Cinema Avorio, the short film Il potere dell’oro rosso, followed at 8:30 p.m. by the film Sleeping Giant by Andrew Cividino