Bif&st: a festival for the public and memory
- The programme for the 5th edition of the Bari International Film Festival has been announced. The festival will take place on April 5-12 in the Apulia capital
After extraordinary success last year (70,000 spectators, in a city of just 320,000), the Bari International Film Festival will launch into its 5th edition on April 5-12 in the Apulia capital. The programme will include 141 feature length films, 44 shorts, 40 documentaries and 14 special events. Organizers have branded the event “low budget” (€1.3 million in total cost) but which year after year gets more and more prestigious. “Everyone has the right to learn about the history of cinema,” the president of the festival Ettore Scola says. “The Bif&st is the only festival offering the public lessons in memory.”
The history of cinema, in this year’s edition, is incarnated by Gian Maria Volonté, for whom “a festival within a festival” has been created,” according to the words of artistic director Felice Laudadio. Twenty years after his death, the great film, theatre and television director will be remembered with a retrospective of his most famous films, but also with a collection (in collaboration with RAI) of his forgotten television contributions and a series of meetings during which directors and actors who have worked with Volonté will speak (Gianni Amelio, Marco Bellocchio and Sergio Rubini, among others).
Among the premieres, Noah by Darren Aronofsky (the opening film) and The Grand Budapest Hotel [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile] by Wes Anderson, British The Invisible Woman [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ralph Fiennes
film profile] by Ralph Fiennes, Swiss French L'amour est un crime parfait [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Arnaud e Jean-Marie Larrieu and Swedish The hundred-year-old man who climbed out the window and disappeared by Felix Hengren. Among titles offered in the Panorama Internazionale section, West by Christian Schwochow, Onirica: Fields of Dogs by Lech Majewski, Of Horses and Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benedikt Erlingsson
film profile] by Benedikt Erlingsson and Pas son genre [+see also:
trailer
interview: Lucas Belvaux
film profile] by Lucas Belvaux.
The ample selection of ItaliaFilmFest will screen some of Italy’s best from the 2013-2014 season. Among these, Il capitale umano [+see also:
trailer
interview: Paolo Virzì
film profile] by Paolo Virzì, Anni felici [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Daniele Luchetti
film profile] by Daniele Luchetti and Song'e Napule by Antonio and Marco Manetti, and among debut and second films, Miele [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Valeria Golino
interview: Valeria Golino
film profile] by Valeria Golino, La mafia uccide solo d'estate [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pierfrancesco Diliberto
film profile] by Pierfrancesco Diliberto and Smetto quando voglio [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sydney Sibilia
film profile] by Sydney Sibilia, to cite just a few.
Among documentaries in competition, presented in their absolute premieres, Maldimare by Matteo Bastianelli, on the Ilva case by Taranto, La memoria degli ultimi by Samuele Rossi, an emotional journey through the memories of the partisan war and the entertaining Habemus Mister by Tiziano Russo, which traces a parallel between a football trainer from the suburbs and the election of Pope Francis.
For a complete programme of the Bif&st, click here.
(Translated from Italian)
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