By including works of all genres and formats, from very short films to 150-minute feature-length movies, in its search for striking film forms from all around the world, the Pesaro International Festival of New Cinema, whose 57th edition is unfolding in person between 19 and 26 June, is continuing the revolution it initiated last year, offering up another varied competition unfettered by duration, genre or age limitations, with the sole goal of showcasing new forms of cinematic expression and, as specified by the event’s director Pedro Armocida, “promoting experimental approaches and new film styles and languages”.

16 works have been selected for the Pesaro New Cinema Competition (some of which will also be available on the Mymovies platform), including The Witches of the Orient [+lire aussi :
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interview : Julien Faraut
fiche film], which is dedicated to the famous Japanese women’s volleyball team which dominated the sport for the full duration of the 1960s, and which heralds Julien Faraut’s return to Pesaro (he won the competition in 2018 via John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection [+lire aussi :
critique
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fiche film]). It’s a love for football, meanwhile, which accompanies the love story recounted by Alexandre Koberidze in his recent Berlinale contender What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? [+lire aussi :
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interview : Alexandre Koberidze
fiche film]. From Argentina comes There Are Not Thirty-Six Ways Of Showing A Man Getting On A Horse by Nicolás Zukerfeld, which is both a reflection on classic American cinema and a spy story revolving around the legendary, titular phrase uttered by Raoul Walsh, and three Italian directors are also limbering up to compete with their short films: Luca Ferri with Mille cipressi, which takes viewers on a journey between the metaphysical and the surreal by way of Carlo Scarpa’s Tomba Brion cemetery; The Nightwalk by Adriano Valerio, exploring the lockdowns endured and escapes enjoyed by a man stuck in Shanghai during the pandemic; and Gianmarco Donaggio, who delivers a “textured film” by way of Manifestarsi, which offers a “microscopic” exploration of billboards across Milan.

The festival is scheduled to open with Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark 40 years on from its original release (the film will be presented by They Call Me Jeeg [+lire aussi :
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making of
interview : Gabriele Mainetti
fiche film] director Gabriele Mainetti), and will be closed by The Most Beautiful Boy in the World [+lire aussi :
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interview : Kristina Lindström et Kris…
fiche film] by Kristina Lindström and Kristian Petri, which, on the 50th anniversary of Death in Venice, looks back on iconic actor Tadzio’s on-screen career. This year’s Italian Film Special Event will pay tribute to Liliana Cavani, who is one of the biggest women directors in Europe and whose entire big-screen back catalogue is set for a screening, while eight movies screened exceptionally on 35mm film will commemorate the 100th anniversary of Giulietta Masina’s birth.

A totally new addition to the gathering this year is the Pesaro Film Festival Circus, a cinema village designed with the very young in mind and featuring workshops and laboratories, but also film screenings which will kick off with Gints Zilbalodis’ animated film Away [+lire aussi :
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interview : Gints Zilbalodis
fiche film] and The Prince’s Voyage [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Jean-François Laguionie and Xavier Picard. Another new project, Open Access Cinema, will explore the options offered to filmmakers by the internet, through the eyes of six international curators (Karianne Fiorini, Tommaso Isabella, Federico Rossin, Dwight Swanson, Gina Telaroli, Wu Wenguang) who work with the different audiovisual resources freely available online and will offer up five programmes which can be followed by way of a Zoom-based webinar.

Worth a final mention among the various Special Screenings on the agenda is the Italian premiere of Lumina [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], which is the first feature film wholly directed by young Roman helmer Samuele Sestieri (The Bear Tales [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]), and, last but not least, there’s also the panel discussion entitled L’Immagine e il suo Doppio, which will unfold in two separate sessions and will gather together eight women producers making films in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal for a conversation moderated by the director of the International Audiovisual Market (MIA) Lucia Millazzotto.