With a total of 173 films – of which 135 feature films, 81 world premieres and 10 international premiers - new sections including a competitive line-up dedicated to horror and another to cult westerns, awards for Malcolm McDowell and the long-time collaborator of Kubrick and Altman Mike Kaplan, and masterclasses courtesy of Paolo Sorrentino, Mario Martone and Toni Servillo, among other offerings - the 40th Torino Film Festival, unspooling between 25 November and 3 December under the direction of film critic and director Steve Della Casa (who’s taking back the festival reins after a twenty-year hiatus), is taking up the challenge to lure audiences back into cinemas, multiplying the number of screens available, creating a new meeting place for professionals and film lovers (Casa Festival, which is open to all) and offering up a rich programme of Italian and international films, whether popular choices or unusual offerings.

“A cultured yet popular, experimental yet enjoyable festival” is how Della Casa’s TFF is being presented. And this as early on as from its opening event in Turin’s Teatro Regio, set to be broadcast live on RAI Radio for the first time ever, which will explore the relationship between The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and film, through interviews and rare footage which audiences will get to see in cinemas and listen to via radio, and which will also involve Malcolm McDowell, among other names. The iconic English actor from A Clockwork Orange will also be this year’s guest of honour in Turin, receiving the Stella della Mole Prize and delivering a masterclass.

The international feature film competition, for its part, will consist of twelve films (first, second and third works), including Jailbird [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film] by Andrea Magnani, which is part-surreal coming-of-age story and part-prison tale, and Christina [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Nikola Spasic
fiche film] by Nikola Spasic, which is a docu-fiction about a Serbian transsexual sex worker, not to mention Falcon Lake [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film] by Charlotte Le Bon, Pamfir [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
interview : Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
fiche film] by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, Piety [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film] by Eduardo Casanova, Man and Dog [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Ştefan Constantinescu
fiche film] by Stefan Constantinescu, Rodeo [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Lola Quivoron et Julie Ledru
fiche film] by Lola Quivoron, and Unrest [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Cyril Schäublin
fiche film] by Cyril Schäublin.

The Out of Competition line-up is equally rich, offering up a map of the main trends in contemporary cinema. We’ll see the return of some great authors and friends of the festival (Werner Herzog with The Fire Within: A Requiem For Katia And Maurice Krafft [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film], Aleksandr Sokurov with Fairytale [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film], Jerzy Skolimowski with EO [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film], Alain Cavalier with L’amitié, Antonio Rezza with Il Cristo in gola, Sebastien Betbeder with Thick and Thin [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film], Daniele Vicari with Orlando, Christophe Honoré with Winter Boy [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Christophe Honoré
fiche film], Pappi Corsicato with Perfetta illusione [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film], and Alain Guiraudie with Nobody’s Hero [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Alain Guiraudie
fiche film]); the discovery or confirmation of new international filmmakers (Santiago Mitre with 15 Ways To Kill Your Neighbour [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film], Davy Chou with Return to Seoul [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Davy Chou
fiche film], Hlynur Palmason with Godland [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Elliott Crosset Hove
interview : Hlynur Pálmason
fiche film], Alain Ughetto with No Dogs or Italians Allowed [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Alain Ughetto
fiche film], Chie Hayakawa with Plan 75 [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Chie Hayakawa
fiche film]); genre cinema in its various forms (from the wholly female horror of Lorcan Finnegan’s Nocebo [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film] to the twisted science fiction in Quentin Dupieux’s Smoking Causes Coughing [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film], by way of Simon Bogocević Narath’s Croatian picture Illyricum); and hotly anticipated Hollywood films such as Empire of Light [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film] by Sam Mendes and She Said by Maria Schrader, which explores the Weinstein affair. Italian series will also be present at the festival via Giancarlo Fontana’s Bad Guy and Lucio Pellegrini’s Il nostro generale.

A retrospective is also on the agenda for Spanish director Carlos Vermut, who will see four of his films screened, including his new work Mantícore [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Carlos Vermut
fiche film], while the festival’s numerous new sections include the Bad Tales line-up, which will present new ominous stories, including Alberto Mascia’s Hypersleep [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film], starring Stefano Accorsi and depicting a sci-fi nightmare set in a near future where prison sentences can be served via years of enforced sleep. In the Portraits and Landscapes section, Giuseppe Marco Albano’s Noi ce la siamo cavata re-connects with the protagonists of Io speriamo che me la cavo years after the film made history, featuring the last ever interview with Oscar winner Lina Wertmüller. The Conflicts and Ideas section, meanwhile, assembles works reflecting on fairly recent Italian history, including Tony Saccucci’s Lotta Continua, which explores the formation of a renowned extra-parliamentary, revolutionary, working-class group which emerged in the wake of 1968. Last but not least, rounding off the festival agenda are two documentary competitions (international and Italian), the Italian short film competition and the Torino Film Lab film selection.