The Artistic Director of the Rome Film Festival, Marco Müller, announced some of the new features of the Festival’s ninth edition, which will take place from October 16 to 25, 2014 at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, produced by the Fondazione Cinema per Roma. The audience will be the star of the event and will choose the award-winners in each section of the programme: the most important acknowledgments will therefore be awarded on the basis of the votes cast by the audience after the screenings.
Further changes will involve the Official Selection and its different sections, which have all changed name and focus, and are all competitive. In this sense, the structure of the 2014 Festival will be “slimmer” than in the past, based on a total of 40 feature-length films: Cinema d’Oggiwill present films by both young and well-known authors, Gala will select the season’s great “popular but original” films, Mondo Genere will be a collection of films from various film genres, while Prospettive Italia will present a survey of the latest trends in Italian fiction films and documentaries (the new regulations do not include medium-length and short films). At the end of each screening, the audience will give their vote and assign: the BNL People’s Choice Award | Gala, in collaboration with the Festival Main Partner BNL Gruppo BNP Paribas, thePeople’s Choice Award | Cinema d’Oggi, the People’s Choice Award | Mondo Genere, the People’s Choice Award | Cinema Italia (Fiction)and the People’s Choice Award | Cinema Italia (Documentary). On Sunday, October 26 all the winning films will be screened.
The 2014 Festival will pay particular attention to emerging cinema: the debut and second feature-length films included in all the sections (including both the Official Selection and the Independent and Parallel Sidebars) will compete for the TAODUE Camera d’Oro Prize for best debut or second work, awarded by a specific and prestigious jury.
The Artistic Director will also suggest to the Board of Directors the names of the recipients for the following Prizes: the Marc’Aurelio Lifetime Achievement Award, celebrating the work of a master of the art of cinema; the Maverick Director Award, for a filmmaker who has consistently broken new ground in cinema; the Marc’Aurelio Acting Awards, for actors and actresses who have raised acting technique to the highest levels; the Marc’Aurelio of the Future Award, to spotlight the international value of a young director.
Furthermore the DOC.IT association will award a prize to the Best Italian Documentary.
In addition to the Official Selection, the Festival will also feature Alice nella Città, an independent and parallel sidebar with its own organization and regulations, directed by Gianluca Giannelli and Fabia Bettini. Alice nella Città will present a selection of youth-oriented films awarded by a jury composed of youngsters between the age of 14 and 18, to be selected on the national territory.
The team of the selection committee and consultants that ensured the success of the Festival’s 2013 edition has been confirmed. The selection committee consists of Laura Buffoni, Marie-Pierre Duhamel, Massimo Galimberti, Manlio Gomarasca, Sandra Hebron, Giona A. Nazzaro, and Mario Sesti. The consultants are Chen Zhiheng (Chinese area), Deepti D’Cunha (India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka), Babak Karimi (Iran), Diego Lerer (Central and South America), Aliona Shumakova (Russia and CIS – Commonwealth of Independent States), Tomita Mikiko (Japan).
From October 17 to 21, the International Film Market (TBS – The Business Street and NCN – New Cinema Network) will open the doors of the historic Hotel Bernini Bristol once again to the representatives of the international industry. Many events are currently being planned for the TBS Market with the support of long-term partners such as ICE, ANICA, and Rai Trade. They include a Focus on Brazil and Argentina, completed by a series of screenings addressed to the professionals of the film industry and by a conference to present guidelines and experiences in the cooperation between Italy and the two South American countries; the third edition of China Day, dedicated to the promotion of the Italian cinema system on the Chinese market and to the development of trade and co-production between the two countries; Remake it!, a project dedicated to remakes of hit films, to discover and select particularly appealing stories that can communicate with audiences all over the world.
Finally the New Cinema Network, the international market for projects, will present a special focus entitled “The Great Beauties”, offering a selection of projects by foreign directors – both auteur and genre films – to be shot on location in Italy. The purpose is to encourage international co-productions, from both an artistic and a financial point of view, to promote Italy as an ideal territory for setting and shooting films.
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