Annecy hosts best of Italian cinema

by Fabien Lemercier

25/09/2007 - The 25th Annecy Italian Film Festival, which gets underway today and runs through October 2, will be paying homage to Pierre Todeschini, the festival’s emblematic director general who passed away this August.

Traditionally centred on new talent, the competition section will screen nine features this year. One of them is current Italian surprise box-office hit, Andrea Molaioli’s psychological thriller The Girl by the Lake [trailer] (see article).

It is accompanied by Davide Marengo’s Notturno Bus [trailer] (see news); Marco Simon Puccioni’s Shelter [trailer] (a 2007 Berlinale Panorama entry, see article); Stefano Incerti’s L’uomo di vetro [trailer], the story of the Sicilian Mafia’s first “pentito” [someone who turns State’s evidence against organized crime] (see article); and Salvatore Maira’s Venice Days entry Valzer [trailer] (see news).

Further titles in competition are Marco Cucurnia’s SoloMetro, Massimo Venier’s Mi fido di te, Mohsen Melliti’s Three on the Road and Roberto Cimpanelli’s Io l’altro.

Special events at the Savoy festival include the French sneak preview of Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Unknown [trailer] (Best Italian Film 2007), Ermanno Olmi’s One Hundred Nails [trailer], Ferzan Ozpetek’s Saturno Contro, Vittorio De Seta’s Letters from Sahara and The Roses of the Desert by Mario Monicelli, on whom a retrospective will also be held.

The annual Sergio Leone Award will be presented to Gianni Zanasi for his comedy Don’t Think About It [trailer], which attracted the attention of Venice audiences as well as a host of international buyers (see article).

Six feature length films complete the Panorama section: Daniele Luchetti’s My Brother Is an Only Child [trailer, film focus] (see Focus), Enrico Pau’s Jimmy della collina, Fulvio Wetzl’s Mineurs, Eugenio Cappucio’s One out of Two [trailer], Federico Zampaglione’s Nero bifamiliare and Gianni Zanasi’s Nella mischia.

Nine documentaries also feature, including Daniele Vicari’s My Country and Davide Ferrario’s Primo Levi's Journey [trailer].

This year’s festival will also be paying homage to Rome and the Lazio region, with the screening of a dozen films, as part of Cinecittà’s 70th anniversary celebrations. The traditional Film Masterclass will be held by Giuseppe Rotunno, who worked as DoP for Visconti and Fellini, among many others.

The conference for film industry professionals ("How to encourage European co-productions?") will be attended by representatives of the Baden-Wurtemberg, Catalonia, Rhône-Alpes, Paca (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) and Piémont regional film funds.

(Translated from French)