The 11th edition of the Rome
Film Festival opening Thursday boasts a star-studded guest list
including the likes of Roberto Benigni, Bernardo Bertolucci,
David Mamet, Oliver Stone, and Meryl Streep.
The festival's Close Encounters series is to host American
novelist Don DeLillo and contemporary art duo Gilbert & George,
among others.
This year's edition, the second under artistic director
Antonio Monda, runs through October 23 with films from 26
countries. Italy is presenting 11 movies, with four in the
official selection: actress Karen Di Porto's directorial debut
Mary in Rome, Naples '44 by Francesco Patierno, Seven Minutes by
Michele Placido and Sun Heart Love by Daniele Vicari.
Di Porto's comedy about a day in the life of a Roman woman
may be a breakout hit along the lines of Gabriele Mainetti's
Jeeg Robot last year, which went on to win several David di
Donatello (Italy's Oscars) awards, Monda suggested.
The fest will have a number of retrospectives.
Among the classics to be screened are Advise and Consent
(1962) by Otto Preminger, Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012) and
Milk by Gus Van Sant (2008).
American actor Tom Hanks will be celebrated with a lifetime
achievement award and will meet the public.
The festival will also pay tribute to late American
director Michael Cimino, who died in July this year, and Italian
filmmaker Luigi Comencini on the centennial of his birth.
An homage to American actor Gregory Peck features a
screening of William Wyler's 1953 romantic comedy Roman Holiday,
of Academy Award-winner Barbara Kopple's documentary A
Conversation with Gregory Peck, and a meeting with the actor's
daughter Cecilia and son Anthony.
The festival, which will last an extra day this year, will
also screen Ron Howard's Inferno and Moonlight by Barry Jenkins,
about an African American in Miami who discovers he is gay.
Also on the schedule are Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by
the Sea, starring Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams, and Nate
Parker's The Birth of a Nation, a period drama film based on the
story of Nat Turner, who led an 1831 slave rebellion in the
southern United States.
This year's festival will last a day longer that last
year's, at the same budget of 3.4 million euros.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
