The Rome Film Fest “becomes competitive”

The Rome Film Fest changes its face and becomes competitive thanks to the introduction of an international competition. This was announced by the artistic director Paola Malanga, in agreement with the president of the Cinema per Roma Foundation, Gianluca Farinelli and with the general manager, Francesca Via. The event will take place from 13 to 23 October next at the Auditorium Parco della Musica which will host the main screening rooms and the long red carpet, one of the largest in the world. The program will also involve other places and cultural realities of the capital. ‘Alice nella città’, an autonomous and parallel section of the Film Festival dedicated to the younger generations and directed by Fabia Bettini and Gianluca Giannelli, will take place on the same dates as the Festival according to its own regulations. “The seventeenth edition will be a party, a city festival, international, multiple, mirroring the richness of contemporary cinema, a festival for everyone”, explains Gian Luca Farinelli. Paola Malanga goes into detail and adds: “The Film Fest redesigns its profile in the international circuit of city festivals by counting on one of the largest red carpet in the world in one of the key cities in the history of cinema. Compared to the latest editions, an international competition is officially introduced, validated by Fiapf starting from this year. The films in the competition, which is entitled ‘Progressive Cinema – Visions for the world of tomorrow’, will be judged by a jury made up of professionals in the field of cinema, culture and the arts. “In addition to the Competition, the program of the Festival will be composed from other non-competitive sections: ‘Freestyle’ will host titles of free format, duration and style, from TV series to video clips, from films to video art; ‘Grand Public’ will be dedicated to cinema for the general public; ‘Best of 2022’ will host some of the season’s best titles from other international festivals; ‘Restorations and Retrospectives’ will present masterpieces restored to their original splendor and insights into the work of protagonists of Italian and international cinema. authors, and ‘Absolute Beginners’, in which an established author will recall the story of his debut in the cinema. In addition to the previous sections, the Festival will host events, special screenings and giveaways. The complete regulations and the film entry form of the seventeenth edition of the Rome Film Fest will be published on the website www.romacinemafest.it The films in the competitive section, ‘Progressive Cinema’, will be judged by a jury made up of professionals from the world of cinema. of culture and the arts which will award six awards: Best Film, Grand Jury Prize, Best Director, Best Actress Award, Best Actor Award and Special Jury Award (proposed by the President to be chosen from one of the following categories: screenplay, photography , editing and original soundtrack). There are also two transversal prizes: for the best Comedy and for the best first work, the latter in collaboration with the autonomous section ‘Alice nella città’. Also this year, the spectators will be protagonists of the Festival with the awarding of an Audience Award. Finally, the artistic director Malanga, in agreement with the president Farinelli, will propose the assignment of Career Awards to personalities who have made the history of the seventh art. In her work, Paola Malanga will be joined by a new selection committee composed of: Giovanna Fulvi, expert in Asian cinema, one of the programmers of the Toronto Film Festival; Enrico Magrelli, film critic, former director of the International Critics’ Week; Emanuela Martini, film critic, former director of the Torino Film Festival; Nico Marzano, head of the cinema section of the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art in London); Alberto Pezzotta, critic and historian of cinema, former member of the selection committee of the Venice Film Festival.