Bumper line-up for Turin Film Festival

(by Francesco Gallo).
    (ANSA) - Rome, November 10 - Directors Paolo Sorrentino and Nanni Moretti and singer Rita Pavone are among the guests expected to attend the 34th Turin Film Festival (TFF), which opens in the northern Piedmont city on November 18.
    Some 158 films will be screened during the nine-day event, starting with the comedy drama 'Between Us' by Rafael Palacio Illingworth and ending with the action-thriller 'Free Fire' by Britain's Ben Wheatley.
    The only Italian movie in competition is 'I figli della notte', the directorial debut of the grandson of renowned Italian director Vittorio De Sica, Andrea de Sica. "The film is inspired by my years at secondary school and several people who have marked by life," De Sica said.
    The 15 films in competition with a strong Latin American presence will be judged by a jury comprising director of photography Edward Lachman (president); Canadian writer and director Don McKellar; Mariette Rissenbeek of the German Films Service; Romanian director Adrian Sitaru and Israeli actress Hadas Yaron.
    The 2016 festival is directed by Emanuela Martini, with Gabriele Salvatores as guest director. The Neapolitan filmmaker presents an original section titled 'Five easy pieces' comprising the five films that made him realise it would be better to abandon a career as a lawyer. The section Festa mobile del Festival includes two not-to-be-missed true-life dramas: 'Sully' by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks as the pilot of US Airways flight 1549 who was forced to make an emergency landing on the Hudson River in 2009; and Free State of Jones by Gary Ross and starring Matthew McConaughey, which tells the story of the Southern peasant farmer who rebelled against the Confederate army during the American Civil War.
    This section also includes a documentary by Francesca Pedroni on La Scala étoile Roberto Bolle, 'Slam - Tutto per una ragazza' by Andrea Molajoli based on the novel by Nick Hornby, and 'Nessuno ci può Giudicare' by Steve Della Casa on the 1960s and Italian rock.
    Moretti will present the restored version of his 1989 film 'Palombella Rossa' and there will also be a homage to music legend David Bowie, who died in January this year.