Two masters of Italian cinema, Pupi Avati and Gianni Amelio, were awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 21st edition of the Naples Film Festival, from September 23 to October 1. Protagonists of the event directed by Mario Violini, also the refined French director Benoit Jacquot, the actors Toni Servillo, Lino Guanciale, Valeria Golino and Lunetta Savino with previews, “close encounters”, five competitions, author reviews, exhibitions, books, music and conferences. The festival's new headquarters will be the Institut Français Napoli with events also at the Instituto Cervantes, Goethe-Institut Neapel, Castel dell'Ovo, Cinema delle Palme, Cinema Vittoria. Nine days of “full cinema” with over 150 screenings, 30 “close encounters” with guests and 5 competitions for the assignment of the Vesuvio Awards but also many prizes aimed at ensuring greater visibility for first and second works. In the competition are the new European authors for Europe/Mediterranean (Institut Français), among the works there are two world premieres, “Danimarca” by the British director Adrian Shergold and for Italy in competition “Mai per sempre” by Fabio Massa, with films also from Morocco, Germany and Croatia. The short, documentary and school sections of Schermo Napoli, curated by Giuseppe Colella, tell the story of the city. The Videoclip Sessions contest (Castel dell'Ovo) is curated by the editorial staff of www.freakoutmagazine.it, a music magazine coordinated by Giulio Di Donna. The awards ceremony will be held on Sunday 29 September at 19 pm at the Institut Français Napoli, followed by “Zaleska sonorizza Nosferatu”, an audiovisual project by double bass player Caterina Palazzi. All the winning films of SchemoNapoli and Videoclip Sessions will be screened on Monday, September 30th at 17:XNUMX pm at the Instituto Cervantes. The meeting with director Benoit Jacquot and Valeria Golino will inaugurate the festival on Monday 23 September at 21,15 pm in the Dumas room of the Institut Français, followed by the film, in national preview, “Dernier Amour”, about the passion of Giacomo Casanova (Vincent Lindon) for a courtesan (Stacy Martin), in late eighteenth-century England, based on the Venetian adventurer's memoir “Story of my life”. In the cast of the film Valeria Golino plays the first woman seduced by Casanova. The meeting with the public will be conducted by journalist and film critic Antonio Fiore. The protagonist on Tuesday 24 September will be Toni Servillo (21,15 pm – Institut Français) who will talk about himself in a talk with the journalist Marco Lombardi, before the screening of his film “5 is the perfect number” directed by Igort, who will introduce the film. Pupi Avati will be at the Cinema Vittoria on Thursday 26 September at 21 pm with his latest film “Il Signor Diavolo” which marks the director’s return to the horror genre. Marco Lombardi hosts the meeting with the public. Currently on the set of “Il Commissario Ricciardi”, which in recent months has brought back to the city of Naples the 30s atmosphere of the novel by Maurizio de Giovanni on which the fiction is based, the protagonist Lino Guanciale will be a guest of the festival on Friday 27 September at 21 pm at the Institut Français to preview the comedy “La freccia del tempo” by Carlo Sarti, who is also in the theater. Director Gianni Amelio, soon to be seen in the cinema with the highly anticipated “Hammamet” about Bettino Craxi, will be the guest on Saturday 28 September at 21 pm at the Institut Français to present two short films: “Casa d'altri”, on the pain of the people of Amatrice after the 2016 earthquake and “Passatempo” with Renato Carpentieri, a special event at the International Critics' Week at the last Venice Film Festival. The meeting is moderated by Marco Lombardi.
Among the afternoon events, there will also be a meeting with director Gianfranco Pannone for the screening of his new documentary film “Scherza con i fanti”, directed with Ambrogio Sparagna, applauded at the Venice Days (Thursday, September 26, 18,45:27 pm – Institut Français). Actress Lunetta Savino will preview “Rosa” by Katja Colja (Friday, September 19,15, 2018:28 pm – Institut Français). The world premiere of “Dance again with me Heywood!” by Michele Diomà will be presented with legendary author James Ivory, Oscar winner 19,15 for the screenplay of Luca Guadagnino’s film “Call me by your name” (Saturday, September 1, 18:1989 pm – Institut Français). The festival closes with the appointment on October 2919st (1959 pm – Instituto Cervantes) with the Spanish director Diana Toucedo who brings the Italian preview of her first work “Trenta fuochi”. The “Percorsi d'autore” are also back. The first is dedicated to the young Canadian director Xavier Dolan with the screening of the first four films that made him one of the most beloved international filmmakers. A complete retrospective of Silvio Siano, a neorealist director born in Castellammare di Stabia, will be offered with some restored versions, in collaboration with Luciano Cuomo (Quaderni di Cinemasud) and the film historian Paolo Speranza. Among the other scheduled reviews, the Naples Film Festival will offer a tribute to German cinematography entitled “Focus XNUMX-XNUMX: the fall of the Berlin wall” with the screening of films never released in Italy on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the historic event, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Neapel. Another important anniversary will be celebrated with the review “Autour XNUMX… la Nouvelle Vague”, from Godard to Truffaut, sixty years after the birth of the innovative French cinema movement. At the Instituto Cervantes, a section will be dedicated to Spanish cinema with the screening of first works (including the preview of “Trenta fuochi” by Diana Toucedo) and the section “Gli Invisibili” with successful titles never distributed in Campania. The program of the “Spazio agli autori” reviews is completed by films and events including “Sono Gassman! – il re della commedia” and a meeting with the director Fabrizio Corallo, “L'uomo che kidì Truffaut” with the director Luciano Del Prete and the protagonist Antonio Fiore, “Anna Politkovskaja”, a concert for solo voice by Ferdinando Maddaloni and a meeting with Enrique del Pozo after the screening of his documentary “The man behind the woman”.
Guests and screenings for the section dedicated to high school students “Parole di Cinema”, organized in collaboration with Rita Esposito’s Mobydick. At the Vittoria cinema, from Tuesday 24 to Friday 27 September, the actresses Angela Fontana and Denise Tantucci will alternate with the Campania preview of “Likemeback” by Leonardo Guerra Seragnoli; the director Francesco Prisco with “Bob & Marys”; the actor Gianpiero De Concilio with “Un giorno all'improvviso” by Ciro D'Emilio. Also on the program is the Campania preview of “Ed è subito sera” by Claudio Insegno, the film about Dario Scherillo, an innocent victim of the Camorra in 2004; his brother Pasquale Scherillo, Carmen del Core and Geppino Fiorenza will be present.
Two exhibitions have been set up for the festival. At the Institut Français, from 23 to 29 September, “Images of the Nouvelle Vague”, curated by film historian Orio Caldiron, and “BioPICS 3 – The End”, by Fabio Govoni, already underway and until 29 September at Castel dell'Ovo, canvases on the great figures of humanity with the faces of the actors who played them, curated by Nello Arionte, promoted by the association Promuoviamoarte.
There will also be space for literature with the presentation of two books at the André Malraux Media Library of the Institut Français: “Destinazione Tina Pica” by Gioconda Marinelli (Tuesday 24 September, 18 pm) with an introduction by Giulio Baffi and Valerio Caprara, and readings by Ingrid Sansone; “I film mai girati” (Wednesday 25 September, 19 pm) by Emanuele Canzaniello, with an introduction by Giuseppe Merlino and Valeria Sperti, and readings by Alessio Sica.
Two conferences are scheduled: “Information and cinema” in collaboration with the Order of Journalists of Campania and attribution of credits. Participants: Ottavio Lucarelli, Marcella Cerciello, Mario Violini and Gianni Russo; “The challenge of the third sector for cultural organizations” curated by Marco D'Isanto, with the participation of Rosanna Romano (Campania Region).
THE COMPETITIONS:
Europe Mediterranean
The Europa Mediterraneo international competition presents five unreleased European films by young authors that will be screened at the Institut Français at 17,30:23 p.m. From Croatia comes “Aleksi” by Barbara Vekaric: a girl tries to escape the boring life that her family has imposed on her (Italian Preview – Monday 24 September). From Germany comes the thriller “A clear felling” by Max Glescinski, the story of two friends who meet again twenty years later to face dark truths (Italian Preview – Tuesday 25 September). From Great Britain comes the film “Danimarca” a bittersweet comedy about the adventures of an unlucky and jobless man who, while travelling in Europe, tries to get arrested to get a bed to sleep in (World Preview – Wednesday 27 September). From Morocco “The Healer” by Mohamed Zineddaine: on the outskirts of Khouribga, a city near a phosphate mine, trains full of toxic minerals travel night and day between the mines and the large factory, a moloch that dominates, feeds on and slowly kills the city and its inhabitants (Campana Preview – Friday 28 September). From Italy “Mai per sempre” by Fabio Massa, the dramatic story of friendship, love and an internal struggle between good and evil. It is the life of Luca, a young man who, despite the comfort of his family, prefers to break his back in a workshop he owns far from Naples where he grew up and where his mother Silvana still lives with her new husband, Saverio, a prestigious lawyer, whose evil way of being and behaving Luca does not share (World Preview – Saturday XNUMX September). The jury coordinated by Prof. Giuseppe Borrone, film historian, is composed of students from the Federico II University of the Master's Degree in Music and Entertainment and the Degree Course in Archaeology and History of the Arts, Entertainment curriculum, students from the Campania film schools, ABAN - Academy of Fine Arts of Nola, ASCI Film School in Naples, Film School of Naples, Pigrecoemme Film School.
The three competitions of Schermo Napoli (Short, Doc and Schools)
Schermo Napoli Corti presents 32 titles, among which “Veronica non sa fumo” by Chiara Marotta, Best Short of the 2019 Critics’ Week of the Venice Film Festival, “La scelta” by Giuseppe Nuzzo, presented at the 2019 Critics’ Week with Cristina Donadio and “Wash me” by Francesco Prisco with Massimiliano Gallo. The jury is composed of the actor Adriano Pantaleo, the journalist and director Ilaria Urbani, and the director and teacher Pino Sondelli. Schermo Napoli Doc proposes 17 titles, including “Denise – Al di là del vetro” by Gianfranco Gallo about Raffaele Cutolo’s daughter, “So sempe chille” by Romano Montesarchio about the singer-songwriter Franco Ricciardi, and “Sfizzicariello” by the journalist Rossella Grasso, stories of redemption for a group of young people with mental health problems who run a small delicatessen in the historic center of Naples. The judges will be the director Fulvio Iannucci, the journalist Alessandro Savoia and the anthropologist Helga Sanità. The section is completed by the Schermo Napoli Scuole competition with 17 works from elementary, middle and high schools in Campania. The jury will include the journalist Carmen Credendino, Igor Scognamiglio, professor of communication at the Suor Orsola Benincasa University and the director and professor Vincenzo Albano.
Videoclip Sessions
The Videoclip Sessions competition curated by the editorial staff of www.freakoutmagazine.it, a historic Italian music magazine coordinated by Giulio Di Donna, is back for the second year: eighteen nations represented, from the USA to South Africa, passing through Central Europe, and 60 works selected with over 600 video clips submitted to the jury composed of the Tuscan Michele Faggi, content manager at the magazine Indie-eye.it, the journalist Cecilia Donadio and Alfredo Capuano, head of the Cuore di Napoli festival and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples. In an era in which video enjoyment is reduced to smartphone microscreens and insufficient audio, the desire to re-propose in cinematic form the videos made by young and established videomakers is born. The group of genre clips is very strong: trap and rap that photograph the phenomenon of the moment. Among the competing videos we find the works of the Italians Max Gazzè, Sick Tamburo, /handlogic, Egon, Gio Evan, Le Capre a Sonagli, Assalti Frontali, In Arte Gibilterra but also the return of the winner of the last edition, the Portuguese director João Pombeiro who proposes the new video of Nightmares On Wax. The 2D work of a Chilean band with Chino Moreno of Deftones on vocals stands out, as well as that of the German-Canadian star Alice Merton and the Spanish star India Martínez. The group of Neapolitan artists is large with: Libera Velo, Hapax, Capone&BungtBangt, Ferraniacolor, Napoli Milionaria who propose the absolute preview of the work “'A nuttata è passa”, a tribute to the city and its patron saint, Indubstry, Profugy, Malatja, Drakmah, Tidal Waves and Carl Hyle.
NAPLES FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS
All the competitions have the Vesuvio Award, a bronze sculpture created by Lello Esposito, and a series of prizes aimed at ensuring distribution for the works. For Europe/Mediterranean, the Augustus Color prize is up for grabs, consisting of 10 copies in DCP format for each winner, to encourage their acquisition by Italian distribution. SchermoNapoli will also ensure visibility for the selected works by re-proposing them in the traveling festivals organized by the Napolicinema Association (41. Parallelo at the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, New York University Department of Italian Studies, Cinema al Castello a Morra de Sanctis). Finally, Diregiovani, in collaboration with the Dire press agency, will award the Giovani Visioni Prize to the work that stands out for an original idea that combines information, narrative language and the effectiveness of the message transmitted. The Cinemaitaliano.info Prize for the best documentary will be awarded with inclusion in the home video circuit.
The Naples Film Festival is organized by the Napolicinema Association in collaboration with the Institut Français Napoli, the Instituto Cervantes Napoli, the Goethe Institut Neapel and the Suor Orsola Benincasa, Federico II and L'Orientale Universities, Promuoviamoarte and Openart, with the contribution of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (Mibac), the patronage of the Ministry of Education, University and Research (Miur), EUNIC – European Union National Institutes for Culture, the Campania Region, the Municipality of Naples, CFCC – Coordination of Campania Film Festivals, FCRC – Film Commission Campania Region, Agis Campania, Anec Campania, Fice Campania.
www.napolifilmfestival.com – info@napolifilmfestival.com
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