SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2023
The Sydney Film Festival, arguably the main international film festival in Australia, celebrates a remarkable milestone this year: its 70th edition. More than 200 films will be showcased. In consideration of the presence of Italian films, the Italian Cultural Institute of Sydney has renewed its collaboration with one of the most prestigious cinematographic showcases in the Asia-Pacific area and in the world.
A collaboration that has seen the Institute actively work over the years both to ensure the presence of Italian films at the annual Festival, and see the presence of guests from Italy materialize: directors, actresses and actors, insiders in the name of that international cooperation which prospectively would leads to co-productions.
The Festival will take place from 7 to 19 June 2023 and the Artistic Direction of the Festival (Nashen Moodley) has retained the participation of two Italian films.
The first feature film is Emanuele Crialese’s latest work, L’immensità (2022), starring the prestigious Penélope Cruz in the role of protagonist and dealing with gender issues through a typical reading of an “Italian comedy”. In 2022 it obtained nominations for the Golden Lion for best film, the Queer Lion and the Volpi Cup for best female performance to Penélope Cruz at the Venice International Film Festival. In 2023, for the David di Donatello, the nomination for Best Actress for Penélope Cruz and the nomination for Best Original Screenplay for Emanuele Crialese, Francesca Manieri and Vittorio Moroni.
The second film, Primadonna (The Girl from Tomorrow, 2023) by Marta Savina, is a drama set in Sicily in the 1960s and focuses on the violence suffered by a young woman and her reaction outside the traditional schemes. In addition to Sydney, the film was presented in Stockholm, Dublin, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, London, Barcelona, Prague and Rome where it received the Raffaella Fioretta Award. Director Marta Savina will be in person at both screenings of the film.
L’immensità: in Rome in the 1970s, Spanish Clara and Sicilian husband Felice Borghetti move into a new apartment in the suburbs, together with their three children. The marriage between the two is in crisis and Clara devotes herself entirely to the children to compensate, even if the relationship with her eldest daughter soon becomes tense. In fact, the twelve-year-old not only feels the tensions in her parents’ marriage, but begins to question her gender identity, calling herself Andrea and introducing herself to others with the male gender.
Primadonna: The story of Lia, a young girl who reacts to the most terrible violence with an act of rebellion that will undermine the social customs of her time, the 1960s in Sicily. In a world where the law of the strongest reigns, the mafia is rooted and accepted as a natural part of life, the powerful decide and the weakest execute, her courage will pave the way for the fight for women’s rights.
For more information and ticketing refer to https://www.sff.org.au/