Italian Cinema London fest to open with Happy Family

Italian Cinema London, previously known as the Italian Film Festival, will open on April 15 with the UK premiere of Happy Family, introduced by director Gabriele Salvatores.

The Italian Film Festival ran for 15 years at venues around the UK, but this is the first year that the festival will be based exclusively in London.

Films screening at the festival, which runs until Apri 25l at the Riverside Studios in London, will include Francesca Comencini’s The White Space, Giuseppe Piccioni’s Giulia doesn’t date at Night, Fausto Brizzi’s Ex and Renato de Maria’s The Front Line.

The documentary section of the festival will include two films celebrating the 50th anniversary of La Dolce Vita - Federico Fellini’s Autobiography:Clips from his Life, by Paquito Del Bosco, and Looking for Sofia, by Roberto Olla. Eric Gandini’s Videocracy is also in the line-up.

The New Cinema section will include Valerio Mieli’s debut feature Ten Winters, Alessandro Angelini’s Raise your Head, Stefania Sandrelli’s Christine and Alessandro Di Robilant’s Small Sea.

The festival is organised by Italian Films UK, the agency created to promote Italian films in the UK.

“Italian Cinema London is not just a showcase for an audience of cinephiles, we believe the Festival is an important and unique opportunity to promote Italian films in the UK market which is proving rather difficult to access,” said the festival’s artistic director Clara Caleo Green.