03/06/2005

The Pesaro International New Film Festival turns 40 this year. For the 41st festival (25th June – 3rd July), director Giovanni Spagnoletti and his team have organised a retrospective on Korean cinema, including the complete works of Jang Sun-woo, one of the most popular directors in his country and who has also received great acclaim in Europe. The new competitive section created last year will screen recent productions from all around the world. This year, the €5,000 prize is dedicated to the memory of Lino Miccichè, who, having worked for the festival for years, died on June the 30th 2004.
In terms of European films, a retrospective organised in collaboration with the Cervantes Institute will screen all the works of the Spanish director Victor Erice, also a guest of the festival. Erice started out as a critic. His first cinematic work was an episode of the movie Los desafios. In 1973, he made his full directorial debut with a masterpiece, The Spirit of the Beehive, a journey through the complex universe of childhood. After a long break dedicated to television and advertising, in 1982, Erice made The South. Ten years later, his film Quince Tree of the Sun won the Fipresci Prize at Cannes.
This year, Pesaro also boasts a special focus on Finnish cinema, in partnership with Kinotar; the company will bring several productions, including the documentaries and musical works of Mika Taanila, plus a wide selection of films, fiction and non-fiction.
On the 19th, a special retrospective overseen by Adriano Aprà and supported by the Experimental Film Foundation Centre-Cineteca nazionale, will screen all of Marco Belloccio's films, a fantastic odyssey through 40 years of Italian cinema, complemented by a panel discussion and the publication of two research papers, including a book of pictures.