Angry Indian Goddesses comes out on top at the Rome Film Fest
- The first all-female Indian ‘buddy film’ has won the Audience Award at the Roman Festival, which has seen a fall in audience numbers this year. German film Four Kings was awarded in the Alice section
The 10th edition of the Rome Film Fest came to a close with the BNL Audience Award going to Angry Indian Goddesses [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Pan Nalin. The first all-female Indian ‘buddy film’ – by the director of Ayurveda: Art of Being, the highest-grossing Indian documentary of all time – is a portrait of modern-day Indian women co-produced by German company One Two Films, which specialises in feature films for the international market. Angry Indian Goddesses was unveiled in September in the Special Presentations section of the Toronto International Film Festival, and came second in the vote for the People’s Choice Award.
4Kings [+see also:
trailer
interview: Jella Haase
interview: Theresa von Eltz
film profile], on the other hand, the debut film of German director Theresa Von Eltz, won Alice, the independent parallel section of the Rome Film Fest dedicated to the younger generations. The film, which stars Paula Beer, Jella Haase, Moritz Leu and Jannis Niewöhner, tells the story of 4 kids who spend Christmas on a psychiatric ward.
The Taodue Camera d’Oro Award for Best Debut Film was awarded to The Wolfpack by Crystal Moselle, who also won the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. There was also a Special Mention from the Camera d’Oro Taodue Award jury for Mustang [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
film profile]by Deniz Gamze Erguven. Successfully unveiled at Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the film is France’s candidate for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film at the upcoming Academy Awards.
Yesterday the Rome Film Fest published the statistics from this year’s tenth edition, which cost approximately €4 million and saw few stars grace the red carpet, as per the wishes of new artistic director Antonio Monda. The figures aren’t particularly impressive: 35 thousand tickets were sold, 21% fewer than in 2014, and the Festival’s takings were €215 thousand, down by €68 thousand on last year’s edition, which was directed by Marco Müller. The decline is partly down to the Festival being a day shorter this year and by the loss of the Santa Cecilia room of the Auditorium as a screening venue. “Out of the thirteen thousand places we lost, we clawed back no fewer than four thousand”, explained Antonio Monda, who has promised more famous faces for next year’s edition. The eleventh edition of the Festival will be held from 13 to 23 October 2016.
(Translated from Italian)
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
