The 10th Bif&st takes place from April 27th to May 4th in Bari, southern Italy. National and international competitions, parallel sections, master classes and meetings punctuate this major event of Italian cinema which welcomes 75,000 spectators every year.
This year the festival celebrates one of the greatest film composers, Ennio Morricone, on his 90th birthday. There will be a retrospective of 42 of his films – chosen from the 520 films in his filmography – exhibitions and meetings. Spectators can see, or see again, Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Marco Tullio Giordana’s Pasolini, death of a poet (1994) or A Pure Formality by Giuseppe Tornatore (1994) — amongst many other films. Great names of Italian cinema, such as Roberto Faenza, Ricky Tognazzi, Simona Izzo, Marco Bellochio and Giuseppe Tornatore, will be present to celebrate the richness of the composer’s work.
The opening ceremony, which took place on April 27th, previewed a restored version of Napoli che canta, a treasure of the silent cinemadirected in 1926 by Roberto Roberti, and accompanied by the voice of Lina Sastri. During the festival week 7 other films are being previewed, including three Italian films: Andra Zaccariello’s Non sono un assassino, Riccardo Grandi’s Passeggeri notturni and Sergio Rubini’s Il grande spirito.
In the Official Competition 12 productions from around the world are competing in the International Panorama. In particular an Italian-Slovenian co-production Rosa by Katja Colja, Meltem a Franco-Greek film by Basile Doganis and a Greek film, The Waiter, by Steve Krikris. The award-winning films will be decided by a jury chaired by Derek Malcolm, an English film critic, and announced at an awards ceremony.
In the ItaliaFilmFest category the awards have already been announced: Matteo Garrone won Best Director for Dogman, while Best Production went to Luca Guadagnino, Marco Morabito & Co for their work on Suspiria. The Best Screenplay Award went to Maurizio Braucci, Claudio Giovannesi and Roberto Saviano for Piranhas.
Sources: https://www.lavocedinewyork.com , https://www.bariviva.it/
