The 15th RIFF pays tribute to Claudio Caligari and features a new LGBTQ section
- The Rome Independent Film Festival will be back from 25 November-1 December, boasting 110 titles straddling fiction and documentary, plus focuses on Spain, Croatia and Bosnia
Eight movies in the international competition, a new section focusing on LGBTQ topics, a tribute to Claudio Caligari, and focuses on Spain, Croatia and Bosnia: this is only a small cross-section of what will be on offer at the RIFF - Rome Independent Film Festival, the 15th edition of which unspools in the Italian capital from 25 November-1 December 2016. All in all, the event will play host to 110 titles, including independent films and documentaries hailing from 24 countries, 15 of which will be world-premiered and ten will have their European premieres.
Among the titles in competition are the Spanish film Un otoño sin Berlin [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Lara Izaguirre, Germany’s Jonathan [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Piotr J Lewandowski and France’s The Girl Without Hands [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Sébastien Laudenbach. The Italian competition has four movies lined up: Da che parte stai by Francesco Lopez, Gramigna (Volevo una vita normale) [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Sebastiano Rizzo, the Italian-Swiss production Girl in Flight [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Sandra Vannucchi and Sex Cowboys by Adriano Giotti. In the documentary competition we find A Young Girl in Her Nineties [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Yann Coridian, and Femmes contre Daech by Pascale Bourgaux, while the Italian docs include 2 Girls by Marco Speroni and Sull’orlo della gloria by Maurizio Sciarra.
The “New Cinephilias – Spanish Arthouse Cinema” sidebar, organised in conjunction with the Cervantes Institute, comprises four titles: Beautiful Youth [+see also:
film review
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interview: Jaime Rosales
film profile] by Jaime Rosales, The Mosquito Net [+see also:
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film profile] by Agustì Vila, Falling Star [+see also:
film review
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interview: Luis Miñarro
film profile] by Lluís Miñarro and Ärctic [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile] by Gabriel Velázquez. Meanwhile, to mark the 20-year anniversary of the end of the war in Bosnia, the parallel event “Sarajevo – Stories of a Siege” will screen three works by Giancarlo Bocchi (L’assedio - Mille giorni a Sarajevo, Il ponte di Sarajevo and Gente di Sarajevo). Furthermore, in partnership with the Kinookus Food Film Festival, which takes place in September every year in the village of Ston (Croatia) and is famous for its outstanding culinary offerings, the RIFF will screen the documentary Fishermen’s Conversations by Chiara Bove Makiedo, with an added bonus for viewers: they will be able to taste the food and drink that they see on screen for real.
Lastly, there will be a tribute to Claudio Caligari with a retrospective of his films (Toxic Love, L’odore della notte and Don’t Be Bad [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and an “LGBTQ Focus” featuring eight titles, including features, documentaries and short films that are linked to gender identity and have won numerous awards at international festivals – one of these is the opening film, the Chilean title You’ll Never Be Alone (Nunca vas a estar solo) by Alex Anwandter.
The RIFF is made possible thanks to the financial contributions and sponsorship of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities – Directorate General for Cinema, the Department of Culture and Youth Policy of the Lazio Region, with contributions from the City of Rome – Department of Cultural Development and in partnership with the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers.
(Translated from Italian)
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