24/04/2007

For its 24th edition, the EuropaCinema is changing formulas. Starting this year, the festival held in Viareggio from May 2-6 will focus annually on films from only one nation. The inaugural country will be Spain.

“We have decided to give the festival, from here on out, a monographical tone”, said Artistic Director Felice Laudadio, “to give audiences a comprehensive overview of the new trends taking place in various countries, to whom film is giving a voice. The films we’re presenting in Viareggio give precious testimony to the important social, political and cultural changes that Spain has undergone, which have rendered it a very different country from 30 years ago. Next year’s edition will be dedicated to Germany”.

The programme is a broad one, featuring ten recent features that never made it to Italy, and ten shorts, chosen from the over one hundred submitted to the festival. Of the former, the most highly anticipated titles include I am Juani [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Bigas Luna, La Caja by Juan Carlos Falcón Rivero, starring Angela Molina, and Tu vida en 65 minutos by Maria Ripoli, the only female director in competition.

Besides screenings, the event will also offer four cinema lessons, opportunities to get to know and speak with some of the most notable names of Spanish cinema. The initiative opens on May 2 with Marisa Paredes (the star of Pedro Almodóvar’s High Heels and All About My Mother, among other films), to be followed by directors Basilio Martín Patino and Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón and, last but not least, on May 6, Angela Molina and master filmmaker Luna.

(Translated from Italian)