Actors, directors and movie fans
have flocked to Rome for the start of the ninth annual film
fest, the Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma.
American actress Rooney Mara, known for her roles in
Nightmare on Elm Street and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,
landed in Fiumicino airport Friday on a flight from London. She
stars with actor Martin Sheen in the thriller film Trash,
directed by Stephen Daldry, which will be screened Saturday
evening at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, the 4000-seat
polyfunctional complex designed by architect Renzo Piano where
the 10-day film festival runs October 16-25.
The 1.5 km road that leads to the Cavea in Rome is being
transformed into one of the longest red carpets in the world for
the festival, which unfolds in seven theatres and auditoriums
across the city, plus a digital platform virtual viewing room.
Next ot the Auditorium, purpose-made pavilions of steel, glass
and wood make up the Villaggio del Cinema, or Cinema Village. In
addition to screenings, there will be exhibitions, debates,
conferences, and the International Film Market at the Hotel
Bernini Bristol.
Film festival attendees will vote for their favourite films
in Contemporary, Gala, Genre, Fiction and Documentary
categories.
Contestants in the running for mass market, original films
- under the Gala category - include Mike Binder's Black and
White, starring Kevin Costner, Octavia Spencer, Anthony Mackie
and Jennifer Ehle. The drama written and directed by Binder is
about a widower, played by Costner, who gets caught in a custody
battle over his granddaughter. The girl's African American
grandmother, played by Octavia Spencer, demands that the child
be returned to her father, a drug addict who Costner's character
blames for the death of his daughter.
Also in the running in the Gala category is Gone Girl, an
American mystery directed by David Fincher. Ben Affleck plays a
husband who discovers on the day of his fifth wedding
anniversary that his wife has gone missing. The film explores
the effects the economic crisis, media distortions, webs of lies
and misdeeds, and the need to keep up appearances.
The Contemporary Cinema category will see the world
premiere of the Italian film Biagio, directed by Pasquale
Scimeca. Biagio tells the true story of Biagio Conte, a
51-year-old lay missionary who founded a shelter for the poor in
his home city of Palermo, which now hosts 150 people. In 1991,
Conte had returned to say goodbye to his relatives and embark on
missionary work in Africa when he was struck by the poverty and
misery in his native city. The philosophical film, which digs
into the meaning of life, offers performances by Marcello
Mazzarella, Vincenzo Albanese and Renato Lenzi.
The Genre category includes the international debut of
Haider, a Hindi drama based on the story of William
Shakespeare's Hamlet. Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, the
protagonist, played by Shahid Kapoor, is a poet who returns to
Kashmir at the height of the 1995 insurgency to look for his
missing father.
The 2014 edition of the film festival will pay particular
attention to emerging talents. First or second feature films in
the various categories will be screened and judged by a special
jury to compete for the TAODUE Camera d'Oro prize.
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