Rome announces 2014 changes

Artistic director Marco Müller has announced new changes to this year’s Rome Film Festival, taking place Oct 16-25.

This year, the award-winners in each section of the programme will be decided by the audience on the basis of votes cast after the screenings.

Each section has changed name and focus for 2014 and are all competitive, resulting in the festival’s structure being “slimmer’ this year with around 40 feature-length films.

The sections are as follows: Cinema d’Oggi will present films by both young and well-known authors; Gala will select “popular but original” films; Mondo Genere will be a collection of films from various film genres; and Prospettive Italia will present a survet of the latest trends in Italian cinema.

From these, the audience will assign various award winners, with all of the winning films screening on Oct 26.

This year’s festival will also focus on emerging cinema as debut and second features will all compete for the TAODUE Camera d’Oro Prize, which will be awarded by a specific jury.

Running in parallel to the Official Selection will be Alice nella Città, an independent sidebar directed by Gianluca Giannelli and Fabia Bettini, focused on youth-oriented films and awarded by a jury composed of 14-18 year olds.

Müller will suggest to the Board of Directors the names of the recipents of the Marc’Aurelio Lifetime Achievement Award, the Maverick Director Award, the Marc’Aurelio Acting Awards and the Marc’Aurelio of the Future Award.

In addition, the DOC.IT association will award a prize to the Best Italian Documentary.

The International Film Market will also return during this year’s festival, taking place Oct 17-21 in the Hotel Bernini Bristol, comprised of The Business Street (including a focus on Brazil and Argentina and the third China Day) and the New Cinema Network (with a focus on foreign directors shooting in Italy).