25/09/2023 - The Roman gathering, directed by Paola Malanga for the second year running, will unspool 18 to 29 October

An “enormous edition, a wonderful programme, a selection for all tastes”, is how the 18th Rome Film Fest has been described by Gian Luca Farinelli, the chair of the Rome Cinema Foundation who introduced the newest edition of the Roman gathering Friday at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, before handing over to the festival’s artistic director Paola Malanga. The event is set to last a day longer this year (running 18 – 29 October), unfolding in various locations across the city and hosting screenings, meetings and discussions on the future of film, all the while maintaining its beating heart at the Auditorium.

The lists of meetings and jury members are yet to be confirmed (they’ll be announced over the coming days, as will additional titles in the selection), but in the meantime, the Progressive Cinema Competition line-up is as follows: 18 international titles will be battling it out for victory, whether fiction films, documentaries or animations. The first out of the traps will be C’è ancora domani [+see also:
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film profile], actress Paola Cortellesi’s directorial debut set in working class Rome of the late 1940s. We’ll then go from Un amor [+see also:
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interview: Isabel Coixet
film profile] by Spain’s Isabel Coixet to Nicolas Boukhrief’s social drama Like a Son, via Joachim Lafosse’s A Silence [+see also:
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interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile], Leo Leigh’s (Mike Leigh’s son) directorial debut Sweet Sue [+see also:
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film profile] and other first works along the lines of Achilles [+see also:
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interview: Farhad Delaram
film profile] by Farhad Delaram, After the Fire [+see also:
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film profile] by Mehdi Fikri, The Hypnosis [+see also:
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interview: Asta Kamma August
interview: Ernst De Geer
film profile] by Sweden’s Ernst De Geer and Toll [+see also:
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film profile] by Carolina Markowicz. Germany will offer up Asli Özge’s Black Box [+see also:
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film profile], painting a paranoid portrait of society, co-produced by the Dardenne brothers, Bulgaria Stephan Komandarev with his Crystal Globe Karlovy Vary winner Blaga’s Lessons [+see also:
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interview: Stephan Komandarev
film profile], and another Swedish title in the form of One Day All This Will Be Yours [+see also:
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interview: Andreas Öhman
film profile] by Andreas Öhman. Hailing from Italy, we’ll see Edoardo Gabbriellini’s Holiday [+see also:
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interview: Edoardo Gabbriellini
film profile], which has just been launched in Toronto; Roberta Torre’s Mi fanno male i capelli [+see also:
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film profile], which is an homage to the much-missed actress Monica Vitti (read our news); and Teemu Nikki’s Italian-Finnish title La morte è un problema dei vivi. Final movies rounding off the competition are Fremont by Babak Jalali, from the USA; The Monk and the Gun by Pawo Choyning Dorji, from Bhutan; and The Erection of Toribio Bardelli by Adrián Saba, from Peru. The latter two films are also Oscar candidates representing their two respective countries.

The non-competitive Freestyle section, composed of free form and freestyle titles, includes Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s animation They Shot the Piano Player [+see also:
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film profile] by Pappi Corsicato; and Fela, il mio dio vivente [+see also:
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film profile] by Daniele Vicari, about Nigerian musician Fela Kuti.

Standing tall in the Grand Public line-up, dedicated to films for large audiences, we’ll see Ferzan Ozpetek’s new melodrama Nuovo Olimpo [+see also:
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film profile], about workers on the Ilva steelworks complex in Taranto; the final chapter in the Manetti brothers’ Diabolik trilogy Diabolik chi sei?; actress Margherita Buy’s first work Volare [+see also:
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film profile]; Told You So [+see also:
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film profile] by Ginevra Elkann, and And the Party Goes On by Robert Guédiguian. Audiences will be treated to some unmissable series too, enjoying the first episodes of Suburraeterna, I leoni di Sicilia (directed by Paolo Genovese), Mare Fuori 4 and La storia by Francesca Archibugi.

The non-competitive Best Of section is making a return, showcasing films hailing from other international festivals which are considered to be the best of the past season. These include this year’s Palme D’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall [+see also:
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interview: Justine Triet
film profile] by Justine Triet, La chimera [+see also:
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film profile] by Alice Rohrwacher, The Zone of Interest [+see also:
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film profile] by Jonathan Glazer, Eureka [+see also:
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interview: Lisandro Alonso
film profile] by Lisandro Alonso, Firebrand [+see also:
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film profile] by Karim Aïnouz and Paul B. Preciado’s documentary Orlando, My Political Biography [+see also:
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interview: Paul B Preciado
film profile].

Last but not least, the festival will be hosting Special Screenings of Kevin Macdonald’s documentary High & Low - John Galliano, about the brilliant creative director of Dior; Io, noi e Gaber [+see also:
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film profile] by Riccardo Milani, about the great Italian artist who invented Teatro Canzone; and Kripton [+see also:
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film profile] by Francesco Munzi, which is an idealistic continuation of the work carried out in Futura [+see also:
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film profile], alongside Emma Dante’s new film Misericordia [+see also:
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interview: Emma Dante
film profile], Francesca Comencini’s latest work Tante facce nella memoria, Kasia Smutniak’s directorial debut Walls [+see also:
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film profile], and David Gutnik’s documentary Rule of the Walls, which follows artists of all extractions and practices in Ukraine in 2022.

The final line-up in the festival is the History of Cinema section, offering up documentaries, restored films, and tributes to actress Isabella Rossellini and composer Shigeru Umebayashi in particular, who will each receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.

(Translated from Italian)