Now in its 24th year, the ST. ALi Italian Film Festival presented by Palace Cinemas returns to cinema screens across all the major Australian cities in October/November, presenting the best of contemporary Italian cinema as well as some classics. In Sydney the Festival will run between 19 September and 18 October.
Among the Italian films presented this year, worth mentioning are L’ultima notte di Amore (The Last Night of Amore), starring Pierfrancesco Favino, which will open the Festival, Ti mangio il cuore (Burning Hearts), an intense thriller set in Puglia, L’ombra di Caravaggio (Caravaggio’s Shadow), with Riccardo Scamarcio in the role of the great Renaissance artist, and La stranezza (Strangeness), with Tony Servillo in the role of Luigi Pirandello.
In addition to a rich selection of films recently released in Italian cinemas, this year the Festival presents, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of Sydney, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of his birth, a retrospective dedicated to Massimo Troisi, the late Neapolitan actor, comedian, director and screenwriter who died prematurely in 1994 at only 41 years of age. The review includes the films Ricomincio da tre (I am starting from three), Splendor and Non ci resta che piangere (Nothing left to do but to cry), Il postino (The Postman), the last film starring Troisi, which will close the Festival, and the recent documentary by Mario Martone dedicated to the actor, e il recente documentario di Mario Martone dedicato all’attore, Laggiù qualcuno mi ama.
In addition to the Troisi retrospective, a selection of 10 Italian shorts will also be screened during the Festival, presented in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in Melbourne and Turin’s Centro Nazionale del Cortometraggio di Torino.
The Italian Film Festival was inaugurated in 2000 by Antonio Zeccola, founder of Palace Cinemas, whose mission has been over the years the presentation and distribution in Australia of quality cinema, as well as dedicating regular annual events to the most interesting and successful movies of the international cinema production. Throughout the years the Italian Film Festival has attracted an ever-growing audience of over 80,000 people attending nationally.
The Institute’s members will be entitled to a discount on the entry fee.
For the complete program visit the Festival’s website: www.italianfilmfestival.com.au
