from ampr
Toronto’s inaugural Italian Contemporary Film Festival (ICFF) has unveiled an exciting lineup of films representing the best in new Italian films. The festival, which kicks off in Toronto on June 26 during Italian Heritage Month, will shine a spotlight on a wide array of Italian films ranging from comedies and dramas to documentaries and shorts. Six days of screenings and receptions will be capped with the Closing Night Ceremony on July 1, at 9:00 PM at the TIFF Bell Lightbox where the ICFF will announce the winners of two inaugural awards.
FEATURE FILMS – LINEUP
· TO ROME WITH LOVE (Canadian Premiere)
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Monica Nappo
Talent Attending: Actress Monica Nappo
TO ROME WITH LOVE is a story about a number of people in Italy — some American, some Italian, some residents, some visitors — and the romances, adventures and predicaments they get into. The film is being released in Canada by Mongrel Media.
· LA KRYPTONITE NELLA BORSA (KRYPTONITE!) (Opening Night Film)
Director: Ivan Cotroneo
Cast: Valeria Golino, Cristiana Capotondi, Luca Zingaretti, Libero de Rienzo.
Talent Attending: Director Ivan Cotroneo and Actress Monica Nappo
Noted screenwriter Ivan Cotroneo (I AM LOVE starring Tilda Swinton) makes an impressive directorial debut with this sharply observed, bittersweet comedy about a large, colourful family in 1970s Naples.
· TERRAFERMA
Director: Emanuele Crialese
Cast: Filippo Pucillo, Beppe Fiorello, Donatella Finocchiaro, Mimmo Cuticchio
Italy’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2011 Academy Awards, Emanuele Crialese (Respiro, The Golden Door) combines the dreamy, magical-realist quality that runs through his work with a hard-hitting social critique in TERRAFERMA. Filippo, whose father was lost at sea years ago, lives with his mother and grandfather on a small island off the coast of Sicily in this lyrical moral tale for our times.
· LA SCOMPARSA DI PATÒ (THE VANISHING OF PATÒ)
Director: Rocco Mortelliti
Cast: Flavio Bucci, Maurizio Casagrande and Danilo Formaggia
Talent Attending: Director Rocco Mortelliti
Rocco Mortelliti’s adaptation of Andrea Camilleri’s Sicilian novel starts as a simple detective story, but becomes an incisive social commentary on Italy’s class system and the true nature of power. This period drama revolves around the disappearance of local banker Antonio Patò. A squabbling Sicilian Carabiniere, Marshal Giummero (Nino Frassica) and a Neapolitan police officer, Inspector Ernesto Bellavia (Casagrande) are forced to work together to solve the mystery.
· BASILICATA COAST TO COAST
Director: Rocco Papaleo
Cast: Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Rocco Papaleo, Alessandro Gassman, Max Gazzè
Rocco Papaleo’s indie sleeper hit was honoured with several prestigious Italian awards, including best first feature for the actor turned writer-director. The beautiful, untouched region of Basilicata stars in this engaging road movie. Nicola (Papaleo), the leader of an unassuming band, enters his group in a music festival on the other side of Basilicata. He comes up with the idea of walking there in ten days, partly as a publicity stunt and partly as a bonding journey.
· IL GIOELLINO (THE JEWEL)
Director: Andrea Molaioli
Cast: Toni Servillo, Remo Girone, Sarah Felberbaum, Lino Guanciale
This well-crafted drama is inspired by one of Italy’s biggest financial scandals, the 2003 meltdown of food and beverage corporation Parmalat. The latest in a string of Italian films that take an unvarnished look at Italy’s dark side (Il Divo, Gomorrah), THE JEWEL is Andrea Molaioli’s follow-up to his acclaimed 2007 debut The Girl By The Lake.
· CHE BELLA GIORNATA (WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY)
Director: Gennaro Nunziante
Cast: Checco Zalone, Nabira Akkari, Michele Alhaique
CHE BELLA GIORNATA made Italian box office history in 2011 by becoming the most successful Italian film of all time. This crowd-pleaser stars popular stand-up comic Zalone as an exuberant mamma’s boy who lands a job guarding the Madonnina, the uppermost statue of Milan’s Duomo cathedral. Unbeknownst to him, the beautiful young Arab woman Farah (Nabira Akkari) who befriends him is actually planning to plant a bomb atop the cathedral.
· POSTI IN PIEDI IN PARADISO (A FLAT FOR THREE)
Director: Carlo Verdone
Cast: Pier Francesco Favino, Carlo Verdone, Marco Giallini
Talent Attending: Actor Pier Francesco Favino
This sharply observed comedy revolves around the complicated lives of three divorced men whose serious economic problems force them to share an apartment in Rome. However, living under the same roof also brings every possible problem each of them has with ex-wives, young or grown-up children and capricious new partners.
· LA GIUSTA DISTANZA
Director: Carlo Mazzacurati
Cast: Giovanni Capovilla, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Giuseppe Battiston
LA GIUSTA DISTANZA revolves around the lives of an immigrant Tunisian mechanic (Hassan), a substitute teacher hoping to work in Brazil (Mara), and an 18-year old aspiring journalist (Giovanni). A romance blossoms between Hassan and Mara, but Giovanni, a friend of Hassan’s, is also infatuated with her. Hassan spies on her at night, as she sleeps, while Giovanni hacks her email account. Then tragedy strikes, affecting the friendship between the two men.
· IMMATURI, IL VIAGGIO (IMMATURE, THE TRIP)
Director: Paolo Genovese
Cast: Raoul Bova, Ambra Angiolini, Luca Bizzarri, Barbora Bobulova
This hilarious comedy is the sequel to the highly successful 2011 box office hit Immaturi (The Immature) a comedy about a group of thirty-something former high-school friends, who, 20 years after their graduation, are forced to retake their final exam in order to graduate from high school. The sequel centres on the same seven friends, this time organizing a trip to Greece that they never managed to take while at school.
· ANNA, TERESA E LE RESISTENTI
Director: Matteo Scarfò
Cast: Nick Mancuso, Paolo Turrà, Antonella Civale, Patrizia Furfaro, Mariano Rigillo
Talent Attending: Director Matteo Scarfò and Actor Nick Mancuso
Teresa Talotta Gullace was shot by a Nazi soldier during the 1943 occupation of Rome. Her tragic story inspired the great actress Anna Magnani’s unforgettable portrayal of Pina in Roberto Rossellini’s Neorealist milestone Roma, Città Aperta, (Rome, Open City). ANNA, TERESA E LE RESISTENTI is a docudrama told through the eyes of an American soldier (played by Italian-Canadian actor Nick Mancuso) and other personalities of that time.
· HABEMUS PAPAM (WE HAVE A POPE)
Director: Nanni Moretti
Cast: Michel Piccoli, Nanni Moretti, Jerzy Stuhr
Nanni Moretti’s comedy takes an imaginary, satirical peek behind Vatican walls at Melville (Michel Piccoli), a cardinal surprisingly elected pope by his peers. At a critical moment before he must address his new flock, Melville insists he can’t take the job.
DOCUMENTARY/SHORTS – “ITALIAN VOICES”
· CANADIAN WEST COAST
Talent Attending: Director Cristiano de Florentiis
From the Bay of Vancouver, a journey winds across the mountains and the ocean, traveling through a land that reminds the observer of the Garden of Eden. A documentary, a road movie about British Columbia narrated by members of the Italian community living in B.C.
PIAZZA PETAWAWA – THE PARADOX
Director: Rino Noto
Talent Attending: Rino Noto
This documentary honours the experiences of individuals who were interned during World War II in the Petawawa concentration camp for being ‘enemy aliens.’
LETTER ONE
Director: Tony Nardi
Talent Attending: Tony Nardi
This film is based on letters sent to “middle-men” of the Canadian cultural scene: a film/television producer and two theatre critics. ICFF presents the first letter, Letter One, which articulates an actor/writer’s struggle with cultural stereotypes in Canadian theatre/film/TV. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Italian Canadian actors, directors and film critics.
PIZZA BAGEL (short)
Director: Joe Mari
Talent Attending: director Joe Mari and Michel Pillarella
Pizza Bagel takes a comedic look at intercultural dating while poking fun at Mediterranean cuisine and unabashedly patriotic soccer celebrations.
· AWARDS
Awards will be presented at the Closing Night Ceremony on July 1, 2012 at 9:00 PM at the TIFF Bell Lightbox where the ICFF will announce the winners of two inaugural awards.
PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
The People’s Choice Award will be chosen by the audience, which will cast ballots for Best Feature. The winner will be announced at the Awards Ceremony.
ANGELA BALDASSARRE AWARD
The Toronto Film Critics Association will present the Angela Baldassarre Award to the “Best Film” of the ICFF in memory of Angela, a gifted Toronto film critic who lost her battle with cancer on November 15, 2007. Angela was a member of the TFCA.
About The Italian Contemporary Film Festival
Founded in 2012, the Italian Contemporary Film Festival is a non-profit cultural organization which provides a showcase for the best in new Italian cinema. Each year, the festival will present international, national and local Italian films to celebrate the diversity of Italian culture.
For more info on the festival please check out: http://www.icff.ca/
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