31/10/2018 - Rome Independent Film Festival is due to celebrate its 17th edition from 16 to 23 November, with focuses on Albania, Spain and LGBT issues

The traditional Roman independent cinema event directed by Fabrizio Ferrari, RIFF - Rome Independent Film Festival, will return to the Nuovo Cinema Aquila from 16 to 23 November with the slogan "Proud To Be Indie,” offering its audience 25 world premieres, 10 European premieres and 90 films that have yet to be released in Italy in competition. 

This year’s edition boasts three new focuses. One on Albania, organised in collaboration with Agron Domi, director of Tirana International Film Festival, which will be attended by the director and anthropologist Joni Shanaj, whose 2013 film Pharmacon will be screened, as well as Atila by Benart Laze and the short film Heaven Has Been Fooled by Odeta Çunaj. The focus on Spain, entitled "First Films: Female Directors,"co-organised by the Cervantes Institute in Rome and SGAE Foundation, will present films by emerging directors, including Les amigues de l'Àgata [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Laia Alabart, Alba Cros, Laura Riusand Marta Verheyen, La higuera de los bastardos [+see also:
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film profile]by Ana Murugarren, Esquece Monelos by Ángeles Huerta and Dancing Beethoven [+see also:
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film profile]by Arantxa Aguirre. The third focus is entitled "LGBT Focus: the value of diversity" and will see the screening of various LGBTQ-themed international short films, including Free Fall, Prisoner of Society and The Transfiguration.

Among the nine feature films in competition are Seule à mon mariage [+see also:
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interview: Marta Bergman
film profile] by Marta Bergman (France/Belgium/Romania), starring a young Romani girl who follows her dreams for freedom, The Limit Of by the Irish director Alan Mulligan, about a successful banker struggling with childhood secrets, the Italian films La partita [+see also:
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film profile] by Francesco Carnesecchi, where the fate of men lies on the football field, and Verso un altrove by Massimiliano Amato, on the difficult reintegration of a former prisoner. The documentary competition features films from all over Europe, including the German film A Steep Without Feet by Lydia Schamschula and Jeremy Glaholt, about the lives of seven extraordinary Syrians exiled from their homeland, Everyone On Stage by Frédéric Even and Louise Mercadier (France), which focuses on ten teenagers with mental disabilities in a circus, Roma 167/62 by the Spanish director Carlos Higinio Esteban, on the ambitious urban projects in Rome in the '60s and '70s, and the Italian documentary Vinilici. Perché il vinile ama la musica by Fulvio Iannucci, which focuses on the history of something iconic – the vinyl record – through the testimonies of musicians, collectors, sellers and sociologists. 

Among the many events planned for RIFF 2018 is a forum entitled "Being European. Strategies and support for the production of content in the cinema and audiovisual production chain," created in collaboration with CNA Cinema and Audiovisual. Three masterclasses are also taking place as part of this edition: "How to write a story: intensive creative writing workshop" with the director and screenwriter Dario Gorini and "Mobile Filmmaking," with the director Giacomo Mantovani, on the use of smartphones to create medium and long format videos, which will be followed by a screening ofCristina Isoli’'s Lightning and Il nome che mi hai sempre dato by Giuseppe AlessioNuzzo. Therewill also be a discussion on Visual Effects entitled "From 'inevitable evil' to the creation of images,” with Bruno Albi Marini, winner of a David di Donatello award for the film Il racconto dei racconti. 

Click here for the complete RIFF 2018 programme.

(Translated from Italian)