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Rome Film Festival 2024

The immortal city of Rome hosts the immortals who will mark the history of cinema, representing the seven arts, from 16 to 27 October.

The Roman Film Festival aims to create an unforgettable new edition, which will take place from 16 to 27 October 2024 at the Auditorium Parco della Musica. Here’s everything you need to know about the 19th edition.

The Rome Film Festival will occur from 16 to 27 October 2024 at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone. Paola Malanga will direct the artistic direction. The festival Is produced by the Fondazione Cinema per Roma, chaired by Salvatore Nastasi and General Director Francesca Via. The program is, as usual, very rich. There are 100 films from 29 countries, of which 18 compete in the Official Selection.

Marcello Mastroianni, the protagonist of the official poster

On the hundredth anniversary of his birth (28 September 1924), a mythological Marcello Mastroianni will be the protagonist of the official image of the 19th edition of the Rome Film Festival. The photograph chosen is a tribute to the great actor on the set of Federico Fellini’s 8½ in one of his most iconic roles, that of Guido Anselmi, a director in complete creative impasse. The shot, taken by Gideon Bachmann, immortalises Mastroianni while he is wearing the famous black hat, heavy-rimmed glasses on his face, a whip and a megaphone in his hand: a memorable character, magnificently interpreted, in a film awarded with two Oscars, an essential stone of comparison for any work on the effort and magic of cinema. The Cinema per Roma Foundation will organise a series of initiatives and events to celebrate the legendary Marcello. A large retrospective of around fifty titles is underway at the Casa del Cinema, which will take place until October 31st and will also feature the actress Chiara Mastroianni, to whom the Fest will dedicate a special tribute. During the event, documentaries on the life and works of the great interpreter will be held.

The pre-opening of the festival with Francis Ford Coppola: the homage to the Italian-American director

Megalopolis, the film which, on 15 October, screened in the pre-opening of the festival, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Adam Driver. On the day before the screening, Monday 14 October, Francis Ford Coppola was the protagonist of a special tribute the Ministry of Culture and Cinecittà wanted to celebrate his extraordinary career, which has delivered titles inscribed in the imaginations of spectators worldwide. The filmmaker received the “Key to Cinecittà” from the Undersecretary of Culture Lucia Borgonzoni, the President of Cinecittà Chiara Sbarigia, and the CEO and General Director Manuela Cacciamani. Furthermore, for the first time in the company’s history, a street in the legendary film studios has been dedicated to Coppola: “Viale Francis Ford Coppola” is now part of Cinecittà and its toponymy. On Tuesday, 15 October, the Maestro was then the protagonist of a meeting at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, organised by Alice nella Città, with the jurors of the autonomous and parallel section of the Film Fest, the students of the film schools and the public.

The opening film on Enrico Berlinguer

Directed by Andrea Segre, it will be Berlinguer. The Great Ambition is the opening film, in competition, of the Rome Film Festival 2024. After several documentaries, it is the first fiction film focused on the biographical account of the public and private life of Enrico Berlinguer, from the trip to Sofia in 1973, when he escaped an attack by the Bulgarian secret services, until the assassination in 1978 of Aldo Moro and the consequent dramatic end of the “historical compromise” strategy, the great attempt to unite popular forces of Catholic and socialist origin to lead the country.

Elio Germano will be the one to give the face, in the seventies, to the secretary of the most important communist party in the Western world, with over one million seven hundred thousand members and more than twelve million voters, united by the grand ambition of realising socialism in democracy. Challenging the dogmas of the Cold War and a world divided in two, Berlinguer and the PCI attempted to go into government for five years, opening up a season of dialogue with the Christian Democrats and coming one step away from changing history.

Women’s stories

The 2024 edition of the festival will be about the great women. Liliana, the documentary that Ruggero Gabbai made on the story of Liliana Segre, is a work that brings together archive material collected over the years from the moment in this extraordinary woman decided to tell the horror of the Shoah. Then there is space for Miss Fallaci, the series about the fearless journalist Oriana Fallaci, a woman in love with truth and freedom, played by Miriam Leone. And Giulia Lazzarini reread the letters that Giorgio Strehler wrote to her over decades (in the documentary Giulia mia cara! Giorgio by Maria Mauti) and above all, The Greatest, the directorial debut of Sonia Bergamasco who, always with the keys of a doc, has created a beautiful portrait of Eleonora Duse.

There will also be great actors

Like Johnny Depp, who will present Modi, his second directorial, focused on the last 72 hours of the life of the Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani, or like Viggo Mortensen, he will also bring his second directorial effort, The Bodies. Ralph Fiennes, who we will see in two films: The Return (an adaptation of the Odyssey, directed by Uberto Pasolini, also starring Juliette Binoche and Claudio Santamaria) and Conclave, a highly anticipated film by Edward Berger (based on the book by Robert Terrier) which sees Stanley Tucci, Sergio Castellitto and Isabella Rossellini also work. To the series The Count of Monte Cristo, with Sam Claflin and Jeremy Irons, and also Luca Zingaretti’s first time behind the camera with The House of Eyes.

The juries

There are two juries for this edition. The Chilean director Pablo Trapero will be the organisation’s president and award the prize to the main Progressive Cinema section winner. With him are Laetitia Casta, the editor Francesca Calvelli, the producer Gail Egan, and the writer Dennis Lehane. The Opera Prima jury is composed of Francesca Comencini, Kaili Peng, and Antoine Reinartz Guillaume Malheiro.

Movies in competition, many of them world premieres, are:

  • 100 Litres of Gold by Teemu Nikki (Italy, Finland)
  • L’Albero by Sara Petraglia (Italy)
  • L’Art D’Être Heureux by Stefan Liberski (Belgium, France)
  • Bring Them Down by Christopher Andrews (Ireland, UK, Belgium)
  • Le Choix by Gilles Bourdos (France)
  • Es Geht Um Luis (About Luis) by Lucia Chiarla (Germany)
  • Greedy People by Potsy Ponciroli (US)
  • L’Isola degli Idealisti by Elisabetta Sgarbi (Italy)
  • Jazzy by Morissa Maltz (US) 
  • Kun Bang Shang Tian Tang (Bound in Heaven) by Huo Xin
  • Reading Lolita in Tehran (Leggere Lolita a Teheran) by Eran Riklis (Italy, Israel)
  • La Nuit se Traine by Michiel Blanchart (Belgium, France)
  • Polvo Serán by Carlos Marques-Marcet (Spain, Italy, Switzerland)
  • Querido Trópico by Ana Endara (Panama, Colombia)
  • Spirit World by Eric Khoo (France, Japan, Singapore)
  • Paradiso in Vendita by Luca Barbareschi (Italy, France)
  • The Trainer by Tony Kaye (US)

The Award for Best First Film

Particular attention will be given to young authors with the Best First Film Award: a jury chaired by the Italian director and screenwriter Francesca Comencini supported by the producer, composer and writer Peng Kai-li and the actor Antoine Reinartz, will award the award to a feature film by fiction scheduled in the Progressive Cinema, Freestyle and Grand Public Competition sections.

Film competing for the Best First Film Award

  • Sara Petraglia’s tree
  • Kun bang shang tian tang (Bound in Heaven) by Huo Xin
  • Bring Them Down by Christopher Andrews
  • The house of glances by Luca Zingaretti
  • Hello child by Edgardo Pistone
  • Grand Theft Hamlet by Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane
  • Nottefonda by Giuseppe Miale Di Mauro
  • La Nuit se traîne by Michiel Blanchart
  • On Falling by Laura Carreira
  • Pierce by Nelicia Low
  • Querido trópico by Ana Endara
  • Sunlight by Nina Conti

 

Italian films:

Four Italian films in competition in the competitive Progressive Cinema section: Berlinguer. The great ambition of Andrea Segre. Paradise for sale by Luca Barbareschi. The Island of the Idealists by Elisabetta Sgarbi and The Tree, by debutant Sara Petraglia. But there are many Italian titles in the other sections, from Luca Zingaretti’s first film as director (The House of Eyes, among the First Works with Ciao Bambino by Edgardo Pistone) to Pirandello’s Eterno visionario by Michele Placido. Cristina Comencini’s adaptation of the bestseller The Children’s Train, and Until the End by Gabriele Muccino.  Many documentaries: Waiting for King Lear by Alessandro Preziosi, The blue avalanche by Giovanni Veronesi. I won’t hold you back on Franco Califano, U.S. Palmese dei Manetti Bros. Liliana by Ruggero Gabbai, dedicated to the life of Liliana Segre, and The Greatest, debut by Sonia Bergamasco, on Eleonora Duse.

The sections of the festival

  • Progressive Cinema Competition
  • Freestyle: non-competitive section made up of free format and style titles, from series to video clips, from films to video art
  • Grand Public: non-competitive section dedicated to cinema for the general public
  • Special screenings: non-competitive section
  • Best of 2024: non-competitive section made up of films from other international festivals, considered among the best of the season.
  • History of Cinema: non-competitive section dedicated to famous films in restored versions, homages and in-depth analysis of the history of Italian and international cinema

Rome Film Festival 2024: tickets, subscriptions, prices

After the online presale which started on 9 October, during the event tickets can also be purchased physically at the ticket office of the Auditorium Parco della Musica, Casa del Cinema, Cinema Giulio Cesare and Teatro Olimpico Cinecittà. All methods are explained on the official website. Subscriptions are available. Ticket prices for films and meetings vary from location to location and are as follows:

  • Sinopoli Hall from €12 to €26
  • Petrassi Room from €12 to €15
  • Gianni Borgna Studio Theater €10
  • MAXXI Museum from €10 to €12
  • Cinema Julius Caesar from €10
  • House of Cinema €6
  • Teatro Olimpico Cinecittà from €6 to €15
  • Reruns €10
  • Absolute Beginners – Paso Doble from €15 to €18

The locations of the festival

  • Ennio Morricone Music Park Auditorium
  • House of Cinema
  • MAXXI
  • Cinema Julius Caesar
  • Palladium Theatre
  • New Cinema Aquila
  • Andromeda Cinema
  • Teatro Olimpico in collaboration with Cinecittà

The Festival will also be in the centre of Rome, along the Porta Pinciana axis, via Veneto, piazza Barberini and Hotel St. Regis, reaching as far as Condotti and Largo Goldoni. The events will also occur at the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS with MediCinema Italia ETS in Rebibbia Nuovo Complex. At the Rebibbia “Germana Stefanini” women’s prison, at the Latina prison and at the Casal del Marmo juvenile penal institute

See the Rome Film Festival website for full details, including the programme and tickets. https://www.romacinemafest.it/en/rome-film-fest/

 

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