The artistic director of the 14th
Rome Film Festival, Antonio Monda, announced the complete
festival lineup during a press conference Friday at the
Auditorium Parco della Musica, together with the president of
the Rome Cinema Foundation, Laura Delli Colli.
One of the most highly anticipated films is Martin Scorsese's
The Irishman, which Monda called "the best movie of the year".
"It's a sort of epic saga of criminality with a lot of
American history in the background, such as the Kennedy
assassination and the Watergate scandal," he said.
The film festival continues to effectively showcase the best
of world cinema each year, due in no small part to its format
that allows for screenings that aren't necessarily world
premieres.
This year's festival features 19 women directors as well as a
focus on music, from Negramaro to Pavarotti, and literature with
themes tied to emigration and the environment.
Della Colli said the festival has a two-sided appeal.
"On the one hand it's an iconic, glamourous festival, as
shown in this year's poster featuring Greta Garbo; while on the
other, there's an adolescent spirit, that of a 14-year old, just
like the age of the festival this year," she said.
Monda is directing the festival for the fifth time and said
the event has seen a 6% increase in attendance.
He said that in the past three years, two Oscar-winning
films, Green Book and Moonlight, came from the Rome festival.
This year's festival will take place across a full 18
locations, compared to seven last year, with 25 participating
countries and 37 world premieres.
Other notable films in competition at this year's festival
include Michael Engler's Downton Abbey, a spin-off of the
popular TV series; the Werner Herzog documentary Nomad: In The
Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin; director Ron Howard's Pavarotti; and
the biopic Judy starring Renee Zellweger in the role of Judy
Garland.
There are three Italian films in the official selection:
Guido Lombardi's Il Ladro dei Giorni starring Riccardo
Scamarcio; Santa Subito directed by Alessandro Piva; and
Tornare, directed by Cristina Comencini, the festival's closing
film.
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