24/09/2024 - Rome Film Fest’s autonomous parallel section dedicated to young people will unspool between 16 and 27 October, showcasing world premieres, directorial debuts and original movies

With fourteen films battling it out in the international competition, 7 going head to head in the Panorama Italia, and many other titles selected out of competition and in special screenings, not to mention 5 TV series, 2 restored movies, 40 shorts and 4 films hailing from the recent Venice Film Festival also gracing the agenda, Alice nella Città  - the autonomous parallel section unfolding within Rome Film Fest dedicated to younger generations - is once again confirming its status as a festival within a festival, boasting an extraordinarily rich line-up for an event which is now at its 22nd year and which is due to unspool from 16 to 27 October between the Auditorium Parco della Musica, the Auditorium della Conciliazione, the Palazzo Esposizioni Roma and the capital’s Cinema Adriano.  

The movies set to screen in competition are Bird [+see also:
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film profile] by Andrea Arnold, starring Barry Keoghan; second works by Jesse Eisenberg (A Real Pain [+see also:
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film profile]) and Gints Zilbalodis (animated movie Flow [+see also:
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interview: Gints Zilbalodis
interview: Red Carpet @ European Film …
film profile]); Under The Volcano [+see also:
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interview: Damian Kocur
film profile] by Damian Kocur, which is also Poland’s candidate at the Oscars; The Outrun [+see also:
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interview: Nora Fingscheidt
film profile] by Nora Fingscheidt, starring Saoirse Ronan; When the Light Breaks [+see also:
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interview: Elín Hall
interview: Rúnar Rúnarsson
film profile] by Iceland’s Rúnar Rúnarsson, and Non dirmi che hai paura by Yasemin Şamdereli, in addition to six fascinating first works, not least actress Paz Vega’s directorial debut Rita [+see also:
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film profile], revolving around gender-based violence. Films set to be showcased out of competition include Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino’s second feature film Luce [+see also:
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interview: Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino
film profile], which was recently selected in Locarno, and Sur un fil [+see also:
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film profile], which sees actor Reda Kateb taking his first steps behind the cameras.

Eye-catching special screenings include Claude Barras’ new movie Savages [+see also:
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interview: Red Carpet @ European Film …
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film profile] by Steve McQueen, Il ragazzo dai pantaloni rosa [+see also:
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film profile] by Margherita Ferri (“one of the most significant and emotional titles out there”, in the words of Gianluca Giannelli, who artistically co-directs Alice alongside Fabia Bettini), the collective film 100 di questi anni, which celebrates a century of the Luce Archive, and the pre-opening movie Megalopolis by Francis Ford Coppola, screening in Cinecittà where the director will also be meeting with the audience.

The Panorama Italia section, for its part, comprises the “newest and freshest Italian films we managed to get our hands on”. The selected titles include No More Trouble, the opening documentary for this particular line-up, which sees Tommaso Romanelli and yachtsman Giovanni Soldini looking back on the crossing during which the former’s father, Andrea Romanelli, lost his life; Luca Severi’s surreal comedy (“the craziest selected this year”) I racconti del mare; Alberto Rizzi’s “Venetian western” Squali [+see also:
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film profile], and actress Camilla Fililppi’s directorial debut Come quando eravamo piccoli, which is a touching family tale of autobiographical origin.

The second seasons of hit TV series - whose first two episodes will be available to view in Rome - along the lines of The Bad Guy [+see also:
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series profile], starring Luigi Lo Cascio, The Law According to Lidia Poët, starring Matilda De Angelis, and Nudes [+see also:
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series profile] by Laura Luchetti, are also much anticipated. The series directed by Stefano Mordini, Adorazione, loosely based on Alice Urciuolo’s novel of the same name, is also set to premiere in the event.

Last but not least, four films hailing from Venice are gracing the mini-festival line-up, including Of Dogs and Men [+see also:
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interview: Dani Rosenberg
film profile] by Dani Rosenberg and After Party [+see also:
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interview: Vojtěch Strakatý
film profile] by Vojtĕch Strakatý, and tributes to Walter Chiari, Antonio Capuano and Ridley Scott will also top the bill, with the latter’s first ever short, made while studying at the Royal College of Art in London, The Boy and the Bicycle, also set for a screening.

(Translated from Italian)