02/03/2022 - The 13th edition of the Bari International Film & Tv Festival will unspool 26 March - 2 April, boasting international premieres, meetings and a new section for fiction TV

Bif&st – the Bari International Film&Tv Festival is returning to its usual springtime setting with a 13th edition enhanced by a line-up entirely devoted to TV fiction. After being forced, for the past two years, to postpone until August and then September on account of the pandemic, the festival devised and directed by Felice Laudadio is now set to unspool in the Apulian capital from 26 March to 2 April. And, alongside its traditional sections - and perfectly in keeping with the times - it’s also introducing an important window onto TV fiction, screening Italian and international works (TV movies, miniseries, TV series, docufiction) in exclusive national premieres, in the presence of their actors and directors.

Whilst details of the Cinema&Fiction line-up are set to be revealed in a press conference scheduled for 22 March, the jam-packed general programme (“an enormous undertaking, put together in only six months”, as pointed out by director Laudadio) was presented yesterday at Bari’s Petruzzelli Theatre, and provides for eight international premieres, twelve films in competition hailing from all corners of the globe, and meetings with the winners of the Italian Film Awards assigned this year; namely Margherita Buy, Nicola Piovani, Donatella Palermo, Fabrizio Ferracane and Lina Siciliano, Miriam Leone, Vinicio Marchioni, and Giuseppe Tornatore.

Most eye-catching among the international premieres on the agenda is the world premiere of Roberto Faenza’s new film Hill of Vision, which explores the life and childhood of the Nobel Prize for Medicine winner Mario Capecchi, who was born in Italy to an American mother who was herself a poet and political activist who was arrested by the Fascist regime in 1941 before being detained in a German concentration camp. Other works jostling in the line-up include Operation Mincemeat [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by John Madden, Goliath [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Frédéric Tellier, I Want to Talk About Duras [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Claire Simon
film profile] by Claire Simon, and La Fortuna [+see also:
trailer
interview: Alejandro Amenábar
series profile] by Alejandro Amenábar, which is the first TV series to be created by the Chilean-Spanish director, toplined by Stanley Tucci.

The 12 films battling it out in the International Panorama competition - set to be assessed by a jury led by director and screenwriter Giuseppe Piccioni - include Dear Thomas [+see also:
film review
interview: Andreas Kleinert
film profile] by Andrea Kleinert (the champion of Tallin’s most recent Black Nights Festival), Ali & Ava [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Clio Barnard (Directors’ Fortnight 2021), The Daughter [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Manuel Martín Cuenca (presented in San Sebastian), and three world premieres: psychological thriller Vetro by Domenico Croce; Settembre [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which is screenwriter Giulia Louise Steigerwalt’s first directorial effort; and Tapirulàn [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which marks actress Claudia Gerini’s debut behind the cameras.

Of note among the festival’s special events are world premieres of Bella Ciao - Per la libertà [+see also:
trailer
interview: Giulia Giapponesi
film profile] by Giulia Giapponesi - which tells the story of this song-symbol of struggle and resistance which is renowned the world over - and Kindeswohl by Franco Angeli - examining the tricky relationship between Italy and Germany when it comes to custody of children – not to mention screenings of L’ombra del giorno [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benedetta Porcaroli
film profile] by Giuseppe Piccioni and The Story of Film: A New Generation [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Mark Cousins.

The pre-opening ceremony, scheduled for 25 March, will involve a tribute to Gianni Minà and a world premiere screening of Loredana Macchietti’s movie Gianni Minà, Una vita da giornalista. The great italian reporter will also receive the Bif&st Lifetime Achievement Award.

(Translated from Italian)