15/10/2007

Andrea Molaioli’s The Girl by the Lake [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] will inaugurate “The Best of Youth”, a travelling series of debut Italian films that kicks off in Brussels on November 11, promoted by Filmitalia. The programme consists of 20 first features made from 2000 through today, selected in collaboration with film critic Fabio Ferzetti.

This important event will take throughout world (after Brussels it travels to Buenos Aires before heading on to other international capitals) a generation of filmmakers often unknown to Italian audiences as well – such as Michelangelo Frammartino, whose The Gift [+see also:
trailer
film profile] was never released domestically despite its success at international festivals such as Locarno and Rotterdam.

Other featured titles were less unfortunate and while they did not perhaps have the distribution they deserved, nevertheless won over critics and the trust of producers, allowing directors such as Paolo Sorrentino (a regular at Cannes, whose upcoming film Il Divo is highly anticipated for next year) to pursue a promising career. He is in the programme with One Man Up [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a success at Venice 2001.

Sometimes, however, a debut film may pass unobserved on few screens yet be more successful than its successor. Such is the case with Pesi leggeri (distributed on a handful of screens in 2001), whose director Enrico Pau is still awaiting the release of Jimmy on the Hill over a year after its participation in the Locarno festival competition.

This best of youth that is being represented in Brussels and beyond, despite having to face the problems of the Italian distribution system, has for several years now been showing welcome signs of revitalisation for the local industry (with names such as Vincenzo Marra, Saverio Costanzo, Daniele Vicari, Francesco Patierno all part of the series) and shows it also knows how to conquer broad audiences (Fausto Brizzi with his box office hit Night Before Exams [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and, on a smaller scale, Molaioli).

Running in Brussels through January 30, 2008, the series – promoted as part of the Europalia project and in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – will be accompanied by a bilingual volume in which the directors recount their struggles in making their first film.

For a complete list of films, please click here.

(Translated from Italian)