22/04/2022 - The oldest LGBTQI+ festival in Europe will unspool between 26 April and 1 May in Turin, offering up 54 titles in competition and the Lovers Goes Industry professional sidebar

54 titles, whether feature films, documentaries or shorts hailing from all over the world, and including 29 national premieres, four European premieres, four international premieres and one world premiere, are all set to be screened across six full festival days… There’ll be all this and much, much more at the Lovers Film Festival, the oldest LGBTQI+-themed festival in Europe (and the third in the world), whose 37th edition is set to unspool from 26 April to 1 May in Turin.

Directed for the third year by activist, writer and TV personality Vladimir Luxuria, who promises an “iconic, colourful and thrilling” festival, the event organised by the Turin Film Museum will offer up three international competitions for feature films, documentaries and short films. Matt Carter’s British work In from the Side - a movie about gay rugby where two players break the main rule of not falling in love with a teammate - is set to open the festival, while Luis Navarrete’s Spanish offering The Phantom of the Sauna [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – a tribute to/parody of the famous Phantom of the Opera musical, boasting a pinch of Almodóvar-style Iberian madness - is scheduled to close the Lovers Film Festival.

Titles gracing the agenda include: Nelly & Nadine [+see also:
film review
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interview: Magnus Gertten
film profile] by Magnus Gertten (Sweden/Belgium/Norway), which speaks of an improbable love story between two women who fall in love in Ravensbrück concentration camp on Christmas Eve 1944; Norway’s Nothing To Laugh About by Petter Næss, where a successful stand-up comedian throws the rulebook out the window and turns his life on its head at the most dramatic time of his life; British movie Sweetheart by Marley Morrison, presented as “one of the best and most enjoyable coming of age stories to be told this season”; and Two by Astar Elkayam, which recounts the physical and emotional challenges faced by two Israeli women when they decide to start a family.

Then there are the documentaries Hello World by Kenneth Elvebakk (Norway/Sweden), telling the courageous coming out stories of three girls aged 12, 13 and 14; La Faraona by Collettiva+, painting a portrait of one of the founding fathers of the Italian LGBTQI+ movement, the eccentric and irreverent Mario Mieli; and French title Fashion Babylon [+see also:
film review
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film profile] by Gianluca Matarrese, which pulls back the curtains on the world of fashion, following three icons from the catwalks of Milan, Paris and New York, and asking what it means to be oneself in a world of appearances.

Stealing focus among the various guests in attendance, aside from the patron of this year’s edition Barbara Bouchet and actress, author and director Sabina Guzzanti, there’s an encounter with trans artist Zi Faàmelu, who’s originally from the Crimea and is a well-known singer and TV personality in Ukraine but is now a political refugee, which will follow the screening of Finlandia [+see also:
trailer
interview: Horacio Alcalá
film profile] in the presence of Spanish director Horacio Alcalà. The National Film Museum is also due to pay tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini on the 100th anniversary of his birth, screening four films and hosting the discussion “Who’s Afraid of Pasolini? The Uncomfortable Thinking in his Films”, which is set to feature the Turin Film Festival’s newly appointed director Steve Della Casa.

Last but not least, there’s the third edition of Lovers Goes Industry (29 and 30 April) which serves as a meeting point for the LGBTQI+ film industry and which attracts producers, distributors, cinema operators and filmmakers from all over the world. The event will consist of pitching sessions, one-to-one meetings and, most importantly, the WIP Pitch where those taking part in specified calls will present their projects to professionals and audiences in attendance. The winning project will then be mentored by a professional specialising in international distribution.

(Translated from Italian)