3RD ANNUAL ITALIAN CONTEMPORARY FILM FESTIVAL TO OPEN WITH GIUSEPPE TORNATORE’S THE BEST OFFER

Cristiano de Florentiis, Artistic Director and Co-Founder of the Italian Contemporary Film Festival (ICFF), announced this year’s slate of outstanding films for the 3rd annual event. A comprehensive showcase of contemporary Italian cinema, this year’s festival will present 28 features and 37 shorts, of which 10 are North American Premieres, 3 World Premieres, 3 Canadian Premieres and 1 International Premiere. ICFF takes place during the Ontario Italian Heritage Month from June 12 to June 20 in Toronto, Vaughan, Hamilton, Montréal and Québec City.

ICFF will open with Giuseppe Tornatore’s drama THE BEST OFFER at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The film is a romantic mystery about Virgil Oldman, a solitary, cultured man whose reluctance to engage with others, especially women, is matched only by the dogged obsessiveness with which he practices his profession as a high-end antiques dealer.

Carlo Verdone (actor in THE GREAT BEAUTY) will be in attendance for his film that he is a director of, SOTTO UNA BUONA STELLA, on June 19 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. He is also here to receive the ICFF Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his long and successful career in cinema.

Highlights of the more than 65 screenings include:

World Premiere – Science Fiction

2047. SIGHTS OF DEATH, directed by Alessandro Capone, is set in the year 2047, with a show down between the Confederate Central Government and the Green War organization to see if what is left of the world can be saved. The film is one of the rare Italian contemporary science fiction films to be seen coming out on the market.

Screening on Friday June 13 at 7 p.m. at TIFF Bell Lightbox.

World Premiere – Documentary

MAD. A WORLD OF FASHION, directed by Anna di Francisca is about Italian fashion through the eyes of Maddalena Sisto, affectionately known as MAD by the readers of Vogue, Elle Germany, The New Yorker and the Corriere della Sera. MAD recorded every trend suggested by the Milan stylists in extraordinary drawings and sketches thus chronicling how fashion developed and influenced the life of Italian women. Her signature drawings represent the desires, fears and imagination of women even today.

Screening on June 14 at 6:45 p.m. at TIFF Bell Lightbox.

International Premiere

FRANCIS OF BUENOS AIRES – THE REVOLUTION OF EQUALITY, directed by Miguel Rodriguez Arias and Fulvio Iannucci, is a biographical documentary film on the life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, from childhood to adulthood, through the fateful 1976, when he decided to save hundreds of lives by opposing the military dictatorship in Argentina.

Screening on Thursday June 12 at 9:30 p.m. at the Colossus Vaughan Cinema.

North American Premiere – Closing Night Film – Comedy

STAY AWAY FROM ME is directed by Alessio Maria Federici and stars Enrico Brignano as a brilliant marriage guidance counselor, but for some reason seems to be a black cat himself where women are concerned.

Screening on Friday June 20 at 6:00 p.m. at the Isabel Bader theatre.

Canadian Premiere

ITALIAN MOVIES, directed by Matteo Pellegrini, is a co-production between Italy and Russia about a television studio that becomes the domain of the mostly immigrant employees of a cleaning company at night. When one day the camera storage door is left open, they get the idea to film video messages that can be sent to their families. The film is co-presented by Scarborough Film Festival.

Screens on Sunday June 15 at 9:45 p.m. at TIFF Bell Lightbox.