On hand for the retrospective devoted to Sergio Sollima, his children Samanta and Stefano Sollima – whose latest film Suburra was met with critical and audience acclaim – will be joined by Kabir Bedi, the unforgettable star of thesix-part Sandokan series directed by Sollima Sr., which was  based on the novels by Emilio Salgari and will be screened in its entirety at the RomaFictionFest. Badir will take part in the Sandokan reunion for the TV classic that made its debut in 1976; he’ll be joined by Carole André, Philippe Leroy, Andrea Giordana, and Guido and Maurizio De Angelis (“Oliver Onions”), who wrote the music for the series and its cult theme song, as well as producer Federico Scardamaglia, the grandson of Elio Scardamaglia, whom he accompanied as producer on the film shoots in India, Malaysia and Thailand.

For the event “Gli insospettabili”, curated by Ivan Cotroneo – the popular author and screenwriter, and director of the film La kryptonite nella borsa and numerous TV series, including Tutti pazzi per amore, Una grande famiglia and the recent È arrivata la felicità – the guest speakers are Hanif Kureishi, one of the UK’s fifty best writers since 1945, according to the Times; journalist, author and film critic Natalia Aspesi; and the internationally-renowned artist Francesco Vezzoli.

FictionFest guests representing titles on the competitive lineup include Kasia Smutniak, Adriano Giannini, Domenico Diele, and Filippo Nigro, stars of the TV movie Limbo, as well as Limbo director Lucio Pellegrini, writer Francesco Piccolo, producer Domenico Procacci, and Melania Mazzucco, author of the novel of the same name on which the movie is based.

Vincent Lannoo, the Belgian director of the films Little Glory and Vampires, and executive producer Katia Raïs will be in Rome to present Trepalium, a series set in the late 21st-century in which the employed and the unemployed are separated by a fortified wall, showing both sides of the same problem: work and the lack thereof. Klaus Zimmermann, executive producer of the hit TV series The Borgias, will present the first episode of Trapped, the crime drama directed by Baltasar Kormàkur (director of the film Everest), with its breathtaking setting in Iceland. And screenwriter and producer LouiseFox will be on hand to introduce audiences to the Australian TV series Glitch.

On Sunday, prior to the repeat screening of The Trial of Chungyang – A Girl Prosecuted by Feudalism, there will be a special live pansori performance, featuring Jong Hyuk Park and Cecilia Soojeong Yi,  thanks to a joint collaboration with the Embassy of the Republic of Korea.

Frank Spotnitz, producer of one of the all-time most popular and longest-running TV series, X Files, returns to the FictionFest after the masterclass he conducted in 2013. He’ll be talking about The Man in the High Castle, the series produced by Ridley Scott and David Zucker for which Spotnitz wrote the screenplay, based on the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name. Together with producers Luca and Matilde Bernabei and the cast and crew, Spotnitz will also be on stage for the hotly awaited Q&A devoted to the international co-production celebrating the famous Florentine dynasty, Medici: Masters of Florence.

For the Out of Competition lineup, Peter Carlton – producer of the film This is England, which received kudos at the Rome Film Fest in 2006 – will be in Rome to present the first episode of The Last Panthers. The French actor and director Jalil Lespert, who helmed the biopic Yves Saint Laurent which premiered in Berlin, will be on hand for the screening of the pilot of the series Versailles. He will be joined by the series’ star George Blagden ((Vikings, Les Misérables, After the Dark) who plays Louis XIV of France, alone at the top, who commissions the building of most splendid palace Europe has ever seen. Erika Christensen, the actress seen in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic (winner of four Oscars®);  Flightplan, alongside Jodie Foster; and numerous TV series such as the mutiple-award-winning Parenthood, will be at the RomaFictionFest to present the series Wicked City.

FictionFest audiences will get the chance to meet the cast of Il sistema – including Claudio Gioè, Gabriella Pession, Valeria Bilello, Lino Guanciale, Antonio Gerardi, and Thomas Trabacchi – who will introduce them to the story built around Major Alessandro Luce of Italy’s financial police, who goes undercover to root out cases of corruption, rigged tenders and drug trafficking in a crime syndicate, in an eerie parallel to the collusion between politics and business that has come to light with the recent ‘real-life’ Mafia Capitale investigation. And Valeria Bruni Tedeschi will be a guest in the TV on Stage section, presenting the French adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters.

The new section Young Adult Special (YAS), a novel link between the Kids & Teens section and the Official Selection, will be hosting Paolo Calabresi and the cast of Zio Gianni 2, along with its director Daniele Grassetti and Andrea Paris, Matteo Rovere, Cristel Checca, Sabrina Paravicini, and Kevin Chiarore, while the web series Lontana da me will be represented by director Claudio Di Biagio and the eagerly-awaited cast composed of Mirko Trovato, Clara Alonso and Tommaso Renzoni.

Director and screenwriter Anna Negri (L’amore proibito, A fari spenti nella notte) will be joined by Isabella Ragonese, the star of Negri’s latest all-woman short film Fuori, and Agnese Costagli, on whose story the short is based. For the documentary Animeland, the FictionFest welcomes director Francesco Chiatante; Giorgio Daviddi, for the comedy trio, Trio Medusa; and journalist, essayist and screenwriter Luca Raffaelli, narrator of the documentary devoted to manga and anime fans.

A gaggle of guests in the offing for the Kids & Teens section. For the 10th anniversary reunion for Un Medico in famiglia, one of Italy’s best-loved series of all time, Giulio Scarpati, Milena Vukotic, Lino Banfi, Margot Sikabonyi, Eleonora Cadeddu, Michael Cadeddu, Paolo Sassanelli, Rossana Banfi, Monica Vallerini, and Giorgio Marchesi will all be on hand, along with the new faces we’ll be seeing in the upcoming season. For Alex e Co.,Federico Russo, Saul Nanni, Beatrice Vendramin, Eleonora Gaggero, Leonardo Cecc
hi will be at the Fest. And gadgets and film characters galore will be out in force for the premiere of the Russian animated series Masha and the Bear. Another novelty on the Kids & Teens program is the weekend premiere of the animated series Miraculous Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, which mixes a sophisticated French pop culture and Japanese animation.