16/04/2014 - The 15th European Film Festival in Lecce (28 April-3 May) will have ten European films in competition, pay homage to Mario Bava and focus on Palestinian cinema.

Claudia Cardinale, Danis Tanović and Marco Bellocchio will take the main stage during the 15^th edition of the European Film Festival in Lecce (28 April-3 May). The legendary actress will be allocated a photo exhibit, with some of the pivotal films from her career also being screened; the Bosnian director (Oscar in 2001 for No Man's Land [+see also:
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film profile] and Grand Jury prize in Berlin in 2013 for An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker [+see also:
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interview: Danis Tanović
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interview: Marco Bellocchio
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The Lecce festival will open this year with the national premiere of For Those Who Can Tell No Tales [+see also:
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interview: Barbara Albert
interview: Jasmila Zbanic
film profile]) and will close with the film, which won the 2013 Lux award, The Broken Circle Meltdown [+see also:
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interview: Felix van Groeningen
interview: Felix Van Groeningen
interview: Felix Van Groeningen
film profile] by Flemish Felix Van Groeningen, which will be coming out in Italian movie theatres on May 8 with Satine Film.

Among the ten European films competing: Concrete Night [+see also:
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film profile] by Pirjo Honkasalo (6 Jussi prizes in Finland, including best film and best director), Austrian Macondo [+see also:
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interview: Sudabeh Mortezai
film profile] by Sudabeh Mortezai (in competition in Berlin in 2014), French Mon âme par toi guérie [+see also:
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film profile] by François Dupeyron (in competition at the last San Sebastian festival), Lifelong [+see also:
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The section on cinema originating from a Euro-Mediterranean country will this year be dedicated to Palestinian cinema, with 15 films in the programme: from the founding Fertile Memory by Michel Khleifi (1980) to pieces of work by filmmakers such as Elia Suleiman, Rashid Mashrawi and Mohammad Bakri. Two years after the screening of Caesar Must Die [+see also:
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interview: Paolo and Vittorio Taviani
film profile] in a Lecce prison, the festival will once more show pieces of work behind bars: among these I milionari [+see also:
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Not forgetting the Cinema and Reality section, which will gather 15 documentaries covering important social and cultural themes, paying homage to horror film maestro Mario Bava with ten of his most significant pieces of work and a meeting called “the general state of Italian comedy” with some of the biggest names in Italian comedy, including Neri Parenti, Enrico Vanzina, Carlo Verdone, Gennaro Nunziante and Paolo Genovese. Fighting for the Mario Verdone Award will be three films: Spaghetti Story [+see also:
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film profile] by Ciro De Caro, South is Nothing [+see also:
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interview: Miriam Karlkvist
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interview: Matteo Oleotto
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(Translated from Italian)