25/03/2014 - Five Portuguese cities will host the event, which this year will also screen Too Much Johnson, by Orson Welles

Five Portuguese cities (Lisbon, Coimbra, Porto, Funchal and Loulé) will host the seventh edition of the 8 ½ Festival, which is dedicated to Italian cinema, from 10 April until 18 May. 

The competition will open with the national premiere of Viva la libertà [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Roberto Andò
film profile], by Roberto Andò. A total of 39 titles are on the programme, including seven feature debuts and second feature films that will be duking it out for the Best Film Award in the competition section. It will fall to the jury, comprising actress Rita Blanco (La cage dorée [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), singer Camané and former director of the Portuguese Film Museum Maria João Seixas, to pick the cream of the crop out of L’arbitro [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paolo Zucca
film profile], by Paolo Zucca; La mafia uccide solo d’estate [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pierfrancesco Diliberto
film profile], by Pif (Pierfrancesco Diliberto); La mia classe [+see also:
trailer
interview: Daniele Gaglianone
film profile], by Daniele Gaglianone; La prima neve [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], by Andrea Segre; Salvo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fabio Grassadonia and Anton…
interview: Sara Serraiocco
film profile], by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza; The Special Need [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by Carlo Zoratti; and Zoran, My Nephew the Idiot [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Matteo Oleotto
film profile], by Matteo Oleotto.

The Panorama section, which features the opening film of the festival, also includes La sedia della felicità [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by Carlo Mazzacurati; L’intrepido [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gianni Amelio
film profile], by Gianni Amelio; Smetto quando voglio [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sydney Sibilia
film profile], by Sydney Sibilia; Via Castellana Bandiera [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emma Dante
film profile], by Emma Dante; and Those Happy Years [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Daniele Luchetti
film profile], by Daniele Luchetti.

The competition will also pay tribute to the Giffoni Children’s Film Festival and the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. As part of the latter, there will be a screening of Too Much Johnson, the lost film that Orson Welles shot in 1938, which was premiered at Pordenone last October.

Alongside this, the Film Museum will present nine works by director Mario Bava, who created the Italian giallo genre of cinema, in a retrospective that will be attended by his son, Lamberto Bava, also a director.

(Translated from Spanish)