“A new way of being together”: this is the theme of the 26th edition of the MedFilm Festival, an event dedicated to the distribution of films from the Euro-Mediterranean region which will this year welcome 70 films representing 30 countries, of which 38 films will be Italian premieres, 4 international premieres and 1 a world premiere. Thanks to its partnership with the MYmovies platform, the entire programme of this year’s festival, which is presided over by Ginella Vocca and directed by Giulio Casadei, will be available to the public online from 9 – 15 November.

The Official Competition - Love & Psyche Prize will present 8 films touching upon various crucial aspects of modern-day society: female emancipation through sport, in the Egyptian documentary Lift Like a Girl [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Mayye Zayed, the housing crisis and the strength of family ties, in Spanish work Last Days of Spring [+lire aussi :
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interview : Isabel Lamberti
fiche film] by Isabel Lamberti, the contradictions at play in today’s Turkey, between real estate investment and drugs trafficking, in Ghosts [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Azra Deniz Okyay, and the decolonisation of the historic past, in the Iraqi film-performance Sandlines by Francis Alÿs. Meanwhile, the Iranian picture Careless Crime by Shakram Mokri and Israel’s The Death of Cinema and My Father Too [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Dani Rosenberg offer up kaleidoscopic reflections on film, while the French work À l’abordage [+lire aussi :
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interview : Guillaume Brac
fiche film] by Guillaume Brac and Palestine’s Gaza mon amour [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Tarzan and Arab Nasser constitute two bright hymns to friendship and love.

Stealing focus in the Out of Competition line-up, we find Nardjes A. [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Karim Ainouz, which was filmed entirely via a Smartphone and which follows a day in the life of Algerian activist Nardjes Asli during the 2019 protests; Red Soil [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Farid Bentoumi, homing in on brand-new Erin Brockovich who’s fighting for the truth, and the short film Correspondencia, a moving, filmed, epistolary conversation between Carla Simón and Dominga Sotomayor Castillo on the subject of maternity and family legacies.

MedFilm will also play host to the 9th edition of Lux Film Days in Rome, which will offer a retrospective of 6 Lux Prize finalist films from the past decade, exploring migration, female emancipation, war, school and childhood: Mediterranea [+lire aussi :
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interview : Jonas Carpignano
fiche film] by Jonas Carpignano, Sami Blood [+lire aussi :
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interview : Amanda Kernell
interview : Lars Lindstrom
fiche film] by Amanda Kernell, Summer 1993 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Carla Simón
fiche film] by Carla Simón, As I Open My Eyes [+lire aussi :
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interview : Leyla Bouzid
fiche film] by Leyla Bouzid, The High Sun [+lire aussi :
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interview : Dalibor Matanic
fiche film] by Dalibor Matanic and Class Enemy [+lire aussi :
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interview : Rok Biček
interview : Rok Bicek
interview : Rok Bicek
fiche film] by Rok Bicek.

Ever central to reflections on the Mediterranean region, Algeria will boast a presence at the festival with a special retrospective involving 8 titles, intitled “Tomorrow, Algeria”. The line-up will consist of mid-length films and short works directed by key filmmakers of the 2010s’ Algerian New Wave: Karim Moussaoui, Sofia Djama, Amin Sidi-Boumédiène, Hassen Ferhani, Dania Reymond, Damien Ounouri, Djamel Kerkar and Lamine Ammar-Khodja.

Similarly unspooling within the MedFilm Festival is the fourth edition of the MEDMeetings, which home in on commercial opportunities for Euro-Mediterranean films and will this year present the new “Lazio Cinema International” call.  This 4th edition will also mark the debut of the MedFilm Works in Progress initiative, curated by Azza Chaabouni and consisting of an open call for fiction projects and creative documentaries which are in the post-production phase and which hail from Italy and the southern shores of the Mediterranean. Another new addition is the MedFilm Talents section, dedicated to emerging talent from Euro-Mediterranean lands and involving two online meetings with Florian Weghorn, Berlinale Talents’ programme manager. And, last but not least, masterclasses led by Susanna Nicchiarelli and Babak Karimi are also on the agenda.