The International Rome Film Festival has announced the line-up of their fourth edition, in a pivotal year for the festival, which has a new team led by president Gian Luigi Rondi.
Danis Tanovic’s Triage will open the fourth edition of the International Rome Film Festival on October 15 with stars Colin Farrell and Paz Vega expected to attend the opening night gala.
The film, about the impact of post-traumatic stress syndrome on a war photographer, will screen as part of the festival’s 14 title-strong competition line-up. It also includes Michael Hoffman’s drama about Leo Tolstoy’s wife The Last Station, starring Helen Mirren and James McAvoy, Cedric Kahn’s Regrets, starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, and Toronto hits Up In The Air, starring George Clooney and directed by Jason Reitman and Margaretha Von Trotta ‘s German drama Vision.
The world premieres in competition are Nicolo Donato’s Danish drama Brotherhood and a trio of Italian titles: Donatella Maiorca’s Sea Purple (Viola Di Mare) about a woman who tries to escape an arranged marriage in Sicily’s in the 1800s, Alessandro Angelini’s Alza La Testa, starring Sergio Castellito, about a single father who aims to vicariously achieve his dream of being a boxer through his son, and
Giorgio Dirtti’s The Man Who Will Come, about the 1944 Nazi massacre in an Italian village.
Out of competition screenings include the Coen Bros’ A Serious Man, and world premieres of James Ivory’s The City Of Your Final Destination and Radu Mihaileanu’s The Concert, about a Communist-era music director at Moscow’s Bolshoi ballet company who is sidelined when he refuses to fire Jewish musicians. As previously announced Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia will close the festival on October 23 with Meryl Streep in town to present the screening.
This year’s selection is the first by Piera Detassis as the solo artistic director. Detassis announced the streamlined section at a press conference in Rome on Friday, flanked by festival president Gian Luigi Rondi, Roberto Cicutto, who heads Rome’s industry initiatives The Business Street and New Cinema Network, and Francesca Via, general director of the Rome Cinema Foundation. She said she aimed to blend Rome’s previously separated “red carpet and star-laden” galas with the auteur-oriented selection of the competition.
Rome’s popular ‘Encounters’ series in which a popular actor or director meets with the public will this year include Streep, also the subject of a career retrospective, and Richard Gere, who will be at the festival to support Lasse Hallstrom’s Hachiko: A Dog’s Story, screening in the Alice In The City sidebar. The others are directors Gabriele Muccino and Giuseppe Tornatore, author Paolo Coelho, at the festival to present the film The Experimental Witch in the Extra section, and actor Asia Argento.
Finally, Rome’s Extra sidebar dedicated to experimental cinema has ratcheted up its line-up and will this year include Martin Scorsese’s American Boy: A Profile Of Steven Prince/American Prince, Edmon Roch’s Spanish film Garbo The Man who Saved The World and Richard Shepard’s I Knew It Was You.
Cicutto said industry registration was already up 16% on this time last year, with delegates in town for the New Cinema Network co-production market (October 15-19) and the Business Street market event which will run concurrently with the festival.
The Rome Film Festival runs Oct 15-23.
Competition
After by Alberto Rodriguez - Spain
Alza La Testa by Alessandro Angelini - Italy
Brotherhood by Nicolo Donato - Denmark
Every Day Is A Holiday (Chaque Jour Est Une Fete) by Dima El-Horr - France - Lebanon
Dawson, Island 10 (Dawson Isla 10) by Miguel Littin - Chile - Brazil - Venezuela
The Last Station by Michael Hoffman - Germany
Plan B by Marco Berger - Argentina
Youth (Quingnian) by Geng Jun - China
Regrets (Les Regrets) by Cedric Kahn - France
Triage by Danis Tanovic - France-Ireland-Spain
The Man Who Will Come by L’Uomo Che Verra - Giorgio Dirtti - Italy
Up In The Air by Jason Reitman - US
Sea Purple (Viola Di Mare) by Donatella Maiorca - Italy
Vision by Margareth Von Trotta - Germany
Out Of Competition:
Christine (Cristina) by Stefania Sandrelli - Italy
The City Of Your Final Destination by James Ivory - US
The Concert (Le Concert) by Radu Mihaileanu - France- Romania-Belgium-Italy
I, Don Giovanni (Io, Don Giovanni) by Carlos Saura - Italy-Spain
Julie & Julia by Nora Ephron - US
The Warrior And The Wolf (Lang Zai Ji) by Zhuangzhuang Tian - China
Oggi Sposi - Just Married by Luca Lucini
A Serious Man by Joel and Ethan Coen - US
Out of competition - Alice in The City
Hachiko: A Dog’s Story by Lasse Hallstrom - US
Astro Boy by David Bowers - US
Special Event - The Twilight Saga: New Moon - presentation of sequences from the upcoming film
Extra - documentaries in competition:
American Boy: A Profile Of Steven Prince/ American Prince by Martin Scorsese, Tommy Pallotta - US
Con Artist by Michael Sladek - US
Fratelli D’Italia by Claudio Giovannesi - Italy
Garbo, The Man Who Saved The World by Edmon Roch - Spain
I Knew It Was You by Richard Shepard - US
L’Italia Del Nostro Scontento by Elisa Fuksas, Francesca Muci, Lucrezia Le Moli - Italy
Latta E Caffe - Riccardo Dalisi, Napoli E Il Teatro Della Decrescita by Antonello Matarazzo with Bruno Di Marino
Mamachas Del Ring - Betty M. Park - Bolivia
PIN2011 - Recollection Of The Street (Erinnerung An Die Strasse) by Torsten Konig- Germany
The One Man Beatles by Cosimo Messeri - Italy
Severe Clear by Kristian Fraga - US
Sons Of Cuba by Andrew Lang - UK
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