Rome Film Feast

The Rome Film Feast is a film festival that takes place in Rome, Italy, during the month of October. The last edition, the second so far, was held from October 18 to 27, 2007. The actual complete name in Italian is CINEMA. Festa Internazionale di Roma: "Festa" could be translated by "Feast", not "Festival", since it is more a celebration of the joy of cinema than a standard film festival.

Even though it is quite a young festival at its second edition, the importance of the hosting city as well as the strong economic investment has placed the Rome Film Feast among the most important film festivals in the world, with huge media coverage and world-famous artists on attendance.

Besides, along with the festival, a film market called the "Business Street" is set up in the "Via Veneto", well-known due to 1960s "La dolce vita".

ections

The Rome Film Feast official program is divided into several sections:

Première

A non-competitive section focused on glamour and film stars, with several big productions being presented.

Cinema 2007

This section, which features more art house-oriented and independent works, is composed by over 20 movies, including the ones taking part in the Rome Film Fest Competition.

Extra

A non-competitive section that concentrates on alternative productions, from documentaries to feature films, from animated to short movies. It also includes several tributes to remarkable artists from the past.

Alice in the City

Devoted to children films, this sections has two competitive subsections, one for over-12 films and the other under-12. Besides, a number of special events, meetings and more.

New Cinema Network

It is both a production workshop and a showcase of young directors presenting their first feature films.

The Actor’s Craft

Since one of the main points of the festival is to give credit to the actors and their acting work, this section pays tribute to an actor or an actor’s school with a retrospective and conferences.

Awards

The Rome Film Fest award is a silver statuette shaped after the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius statue, placed in Michelangelo's Campidoglio Square, arguably one of the most recognizable symbols of Rome. Created by the Rome-based jewelry maker Bulgari, the prize will be assigned to the Best Film, the Best Actor and the Best Actress.

Winners

Best Film

*2006: Izobrajaya Zhertvy /Posing as a victim, Playing the victim (Russia, 2006) by Kirill Serebrennikov,screenplay by The Presnyakov brothers .
*2007: Juno

Best Actor

*2006: Giorgio Colangeli (in "L´ aria salata" by Alessandro Angelini).
*2007: tba

Best Actress

*2006: Ariane Ascaride (in "Le Voyage en Arménie/Armenia" by Robert Guédiguian)
*2007: Jiang Wenli (for "Li Chun" by Gu Chang Wei)

Jury Special Prize

*2006: This Is England (UK, 2006) by Shane Meadows

IMAIE Acting Award

*2006: Sean Connery
*2007: Sophia Loren

Jury

The Rome Film Fest’s Jury is composed by a president, normally a renowned director (2006 edition, Ettore Scola), and 50 Jurors, which, unlike most film festivals, are not film professionals. In fact, it is a People's Jury made up by common moviegoers selected both in Italy and Europe.

Structure

The Rome Film Fest is produced by the Cinema per Roma Foundation, whose president is Goffredo Bettini. Even though the festival has a high number of private sponsors, the City Council of Rome, in the name of the Mayor and film lover Walter Veltroni, the Province of Rome and the Lazio Region strongly support it both in terms of economic investment and institutional communication.

The Artistic Direction of the festival relies on its 5 directors:
*Teresa Cavina (Cinema 2007 and New Cinema Network)
*Piera Detassis (Première)
*Gianluca Giannelli (Alice in the City)
*Giorgio Gosetti (Cinema 2007 and Business Street)
*Mario Sesti (Extra and The Actor’s Craft)

External links

* [http://www.romacinemafest.org/ Official Site in Italian and English]