FELLINI’S CASANOVA by Federico Fellini –155’
Casanova is a libertine, collecting seductions and sexual feats. But he is really interested in someone, and is he really an interesting person? Is he really alive?
THE IRISHMAN by Martin Scorsese –210′
Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran is a man with a lot on his mind. The former labor union high official and hitman learned to kill serving in Italy during the Second World War. He now looks back on his life and the hits that defined his mob career, maintaining connections with the Bufalino crime family. In particular, the part he claims to have played in the disappearance of his life-long friend, Jimmy Hoffa, the former president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who mysteriously vanished in late July 1975 at the age of 62.
THE KILLERS by Vladislav Kozlov –49′
Laura, an alcoholic single mother believes in God but her faith is only nominal. Her trans-humanist son Max, who is convinced that soon the scientists will be able to resurrect dead people, tries to freeze his dying grandfather (Laura’s father) in order to save him. These events shake Laura’s life to the very core and help her to renew her faith and resurrect her spirit.
BELLISSIME by Elisa Amoruso –80’
Giovanna is 20 and in 2000 she was the most required baby model in Italy, and maybe in the world. Francesca is 18 and she has just signed up for “Miss Mascotte”. Valentina instead, would like to take part in a reality show, “Il Collegio” to become famous. Three teenagers with their mother Cristina, a housewife in her fifties, in their pursuit of success, among casting sessions, parades and photo shoots.
IT’S A MAD WORLD by Marco Bocci – 93’
In the difficult Roman neighborhood of Tor Bella Monaca, Mauro, recently abandoned by his girlfriend, is about to discover whether evil is something you were born with or that you acquire during your life. The same old question: nature or nurture?
THE INVISIBLE BOY – SECOND GENERATION by Gabriele Salvatores – 100’
Three years later Michele (The Invisible boy) meets his mother and his twin sister. Both have stories and superpowers but their intentions may not be what Michele thinks.
EASY RIDER by Dennis Hopper –95’
Wyatt and Billy, two Harley-riding hippies, complete a drug deal in Southern California and decide to travel cross-country in search of spiritual truth. On their journey, they experience bigotry and hatred from the inhabitants of small-town America and also meet with other travelers seeking alternative lifestyles. After a terrifying drug experience in New Orleans, the two travelers wonder if they will ever find a way to live peacefully in America.
GOOD GALS by Michela Andreozzi –104’
Four sympathetic friends have the misfortune of being women in the bigoted Italy of the 80s: Anna suffers a constant slut-shaming, Chicca is forced to hide her homosexuality, Caterina is harassed at her precarious workplace, and Maria is the victim of a rude and abusive husband. None of them has the economic power to become independent from men and redeem their social position. So, they decide to rob a suburban bank pretending to be men, to mislead the investigation: none can ever imagine that representatives of the “weak sex” could rob banks. No one except the charming and sensitive new commissioner Morandi, of whom Anna falls in love, endangering the gang of improvised robbers.
A MATTER OF HEART by Francesca Archibugi –104’
Alberto and Angelo find themselves in adjacent beds in the cardiac unit of a Roman hospital. Garage owner Angelo was rushed there after a heart attack, while screenwriter Alberto checked himself in after complaining of chest pains. The latter is a nonstop joker, covering his empty home life and inner turmoil with gregariousness that wins over the impressionable Angelo, whose medical condition is significantly worse than Alberto’s. Reveling in shared adolescent behavior, the two men continue to see each other despite their worlds being miles (literally) apart. Angelo’s pregnant wife Rossana doesn’t understand why her husband is so keen to drag Alberto into the family, and she resists his increased presence in their lives. However, as Angelo’s condition deteriorates and his preoccupations increase, it’s clear to the audience that he’s ensuring his family will be emotionally cared for after his death.
DON’T STOP ME NOW by Riccardo Milani –98’
Giovanna is a low-profile woman with a regular and boring life, split between her accounting job at the Ministry, her daughter Martina’s school commitments and the teases of her exuberant mother. But behind this dull façade, Giovanna is actually a secret agent, engaged in extremely dangerous and thrilling international missions. During a reunion with her former high school classmates, among memories and laughter, Giovanna listens to her friends’ stories realizing that all of them, just like her, are forced to suffer daily absurd vexations. She can’t stand it any longer! The decision is made: her next mission will be helping the people she loves and, among extravagant disguises and hilarious situations, overturn this situation to do justice to her friends!
CHIARA FERRAGNI – UNPOSTED by Elisa Amoruso –85’
Chiara Ferragni, the leading fashion influencer in the world, reveals how the digital revolution has changed the business world, communication, fashion, culture. This film is a portrait of the protagonist, seen both as a woman and as a digital entrepreneur.
ASPROMONTE – LAND OF THE FORGOTTEN by Mimmo Calopresti – 89’
In 1951 in Africo, a small village in the southern valley of Aspromonte, a woman dies during childbirth because a doctor fails to arrive on time. No road connects Africo with other villages. In the wake of this tragedy, all of Africo’s inhabitants, – including children – abandon their usual activities and unite to build their own road. Giulia, the new school teacher, comes from the North with a mission to teach standard Italian to help the cultural cohesion between Africo and the rest of Italy. But she will have to contend with a local mafia boss, Don Totó, who is determined to ensure that the town remains cut off from the rest of the Country and as a consequence, under his power.
GIOVANNA’S FATHER by Pupi Avati –104’
Michele Casali’s only teenage daughter, Giovanna Casali, poses a problem to him. Driven by jealousy, she has just killed her best friend. After a painful trial, Giovanna is sent to a psychiatric hospital due to her “non compos mentis” state. Michele is the only person who takes care of Giovanna during her isolated time at the hospital. Giovanna’s mother, Delia, has never had a good relationship with her daughter, and this becomes particularly evident during Giovanna’s time in reclusion. Meanwhile, Giovanna and Michele’s reinforce the already strong father-daughter bond. Sergio, who is a police inspector and a close friend of Michele’s, is the main witness of the whole situation and he is also in love with Delia. By the end of the war, Delia and Sergio distance themselves from Giovanna and Michele and move North. In 1953, in a small cinema, the original family has an expected encounter.
CITIZEN ROSI by Carolina Rosi and Didi Gnocchi –130′
Rosi invented a new narrative style for a cinema that until then had not existed. His films are the result of research and surveys about different situations in the country: he worked on documents, on “what was known”. He described the ‘power’ that corrupts and corrupts itself when combined with criminality. The narrative wanders through Rosi’s films, not in the order they were shot but following the chronology of the historical facts, they deal with. The documentary therefore not only narrates Rosi’s work but also portrays half a century of Italian history. With their social commitment, his films have made entire generations reflect. However, above all Rosi anticipated the narration of a democracy that was polluted by corruption from the very start. Rosi and his daughter Carolina accompany us on this journey, with fragments from his interviews that give both meaning and intensity to his cinema. Amongst the countless interviewees are magistrates, journalists, directors and friends.
THE VEGETARIAN by Roberto San Pietro –110′
Krishna, son of a Brahmin, lives in Italy milking cows; this contact with them takes him back to his childhood in India, characterized by great respect for nature; when an unproductive cow is to be slaughtered he has to make a choice: accept the culture he lives in or follow his conscience?
GUESTS IN THE VILLA by Ivano De Matteo –88’
Twenty-four hours to tell the story of a marvelous middle-class family in a small and prosperous town of Northern Italy. During the day, these impeccable women and their husbands show off their virtues at the bar, the hairdresser, at a parish party, in a kind of obsequious ballet of good intentions. But as night approaches, the comedy takes on much darker hues and the veiled face of this small-town suddenly appears full of pettiness and violence. The seven protagonists of this story, who represent the seven deadly sins, make their appearance with the utmost innocence. None seems particularly blameworthy but in the end, after nightfall, they will all together be guilty of a heinous crime.
COUCH POTATOES by Francesca Archibugi –102’
Giorgio and Tito, father and son. A successful journalist and a lazy teenager apparently impossible to understand. Giorgio’s dream is to take Tito to the Nasca Hill in Liguria, but Tito prefers to spend his entire day with his group of friends, eating, talking about nothing and playing video games. Until one day when he suddenly informs his father that he would join him on this trip. After a series of accidents and misunderstandings, in the end, somehow father and son will find a way to communicate, or at least they will try.
HAVANA KYRIE by Paolo Consorti –105’
Against the fascinating backdrop of an ever marvelous Havana, Vittorio Arditi De Bellis, an aging Italian orchestra conductor once celebrated for being a virtuoso of Rossini’s compositions, is in dire straits. However, someone remembers he had delivered some of the best renditions of the Rossini-Kyrie, and he soon reluctantly finds himself on the way to Havana, Cuba, to conduct the Children’s Cuban National Choir. Starting on the wrong foot he quickly finds himself on the verge of losing everything. Rossini’s Cuban style and the choir’s children are also the protagonists of this heart-warming and nostalgic tale of living, loving, growing old and being unexpectedly surprised when he meets the son he never knew he fathered years ago. Vittorio’s past adds a new purpose to his present, allowing an otherwise quirky old man to feel his passion and taste the ‘spice of life’ once again.
PIERO VIVARELLI, LIFE AS A B-MOVIE by Fabrizio Laurenti and Nick Vivarelli –83’
This documentary tells the story of the restless life of Piero Vivarelli, an Italian B-movie director, songwriter and the screenwriter of the spaghetti western Django, and his kaleidoscopic filmography.
CALYPSO by Luca Severi –82′
A modern Ulysses wakes up with no memory in the arms of Calypso in a sort of post-apocalyptic Ogigia where he “drowned” in mysterious circumstances. The first logical reaction seems to be to try to escape despite the hostility of the place. However, Calypso’s home it’s a safe and comfortable place. While memories come back, past, present, and future merge together between reality and hallucination, inside and outside of the borders of a place that can be a jailor, at the same time, the last available shelter in a world that doesn’t exist anymore or, maybe, never existed. Inspired by the 5th book of Homer’s Odyssey.
ORDINARY HAPPINESS by Daniele Luchetti –93’
After a deadly accident, Paolo has the chance to go back to Earth for just 92 minutes more, thanks to a calculation error made in a paradise office.
MY BROTHER CHASES DINOSAURS by Stefano Cipani –101’
Jack has always wanted a brother to play with, so when Giovanni is born and his parents tell Jack that he is a ‘special’ child, in Jack’s mind he becomes a superhero with amazing powers. Growing up, Jack discovers that his little brother suffers from Down’s syndrome, and as a teenager, he starts feeling ashamed and wants to keep the secret from his friends and from his girlfriend Arianna to the point of making up his death. But expecting to be loved is impossible when you hide such an important part of yourself. The truth will soon come out, and in the end, Jack will be swept away by Giovanni’s energy and vitality that make him almost a superhero for real. And anyway he’s his best friend.
DAFNE by Federico Bondi –93’
Dafne is a self-aware and bright young woman with Down syndrome. When her mother dies, she has to attend to her father too, on top of attempting to process her own grief.
NOUR by Maurizio Zaccaro – 92’
Even children have to take a desperate journey to Europe, sometimes alone. Nour, who is only ten years old, is one of them. What is she doing alone in Lampedusa, among all the desperate human beings who have miraculously survived a shipwreck? Pietro Bartolo, the island’s doctor, takes care of her and, one step after another, tries not only to know her past but also to rebuild her present.
THE MAYOR OF RIONE SANITA’ by Mario Martone – 115’
The protagonist, Antonio Barracano, is a “man of honor” who distinguishes between “decent people and scoundrels”; he lives surrounded by fierce, ambiguous and pained humanity, where good and evil co-exist in every character. When the two sides of Naples (the legal and the criminal world) finally meet, the inevitable conclusion is a no-win fatal encounter.
IF ONLY – MAGARI by Ginevra Elkann – 104’
A French and Christian-Orthodox mother and an Italian father who is a penniless womanizer and screenwriter with little success. Between them, their children (Seb, Jean, and Alma) who love both their parents and would like them to be back together. Meanwhile, they spend their time with their father and his partner before their mother moves to Canada.
THAT CLICK by Luca Severi –90’
A documentary about legendary photographer Douglas Kirkland that with his camera portrayed sixty years of pop culture ranging from photojournalism to celebrity portraits, from film photography to global events. After taking some of the most iconic photos of Marilyn Monroe, with his unique style and approach he described fashion, celebrities and show business with immortal images that still influence us today.
ITALY IN A DAY by Gabriele Salvatores – 75’
The director used the crowd-sourced documentary “Britain in a Day” as a prototype to produce “Italy in a Day,” featuring clips selected from 45,000 submitted videos all recorded on 26 October 2013. The film was intended as a mirror of the fears of Italians during the economic recession, their uncertainty over their national identity and their refusal to give up dreams.
I AM NOT A KILLER by Andrea Zaccariello –111’
Deputy Police Superintendent Francesco Prencipe is on his way to meet his best friend, Judge Giovanni Mastropaolo, which he hasn’t seen for almost two years. That morning the judge is found dead and Francesco is the last person who has seen him alive.
RICORDI? by Valerio Mieli –106’
A long love story, seen through the memories of one young couple: recollections altered by moods, their different perspectives, and time itself. The journey through the years of two individuals, united, divided, happy, unhappy, deeply in love, or in love with others, in a single stream of emotions and shades of feeling.
GOLDEN MEN by Vincenzo Alfieri –110’
Luigi, a postal security van driver, has a thing for beautiful women and luxury. He dreams all the time about retiring early and move to Costa Rica. But indeed, there’s a thin line between the model employee and a criminal mind. When a new law comes up and makes the early retirement impossible, Luigi decides to build up a perfect plan to steal the Postal Office together with his best friend and ex-colleague Luciano. They just need a reliable partner and Luigi persuades his shadowy colleague Alvise. But Crime is not for everyone and the greed of money of each of them will turn an easy task into a dangerous game.
VIVERE by Francesca Archibugi –103’
Young Lucilla Attorre suffers from psychosomatic asthma; her mother Susi, an aerobic dancing teacher, is always in a hurry and loses everything; her father Luca is a freelancer and he is partial to women.
VOLARE by Gabriele Salvatores – 97’
Sixteen years have passed since the day Vincent was born and those sixteen years have not been easy for anyone. Not for Vincent, immersed in a world of his own, nor for his mother Elena and her companion Mario, who adopted him. Willy is a singer and he is the biological father of Vincent. One night, unexpectedly, he finally decides to meet the son he had never seen before, discovering that he isn’t anything like he had imagined.
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD by Quentin Tarantino –161′
1969. Rick Dalton was once the star of a highly popular TV series but a few bad choices have set his career back, leaving him wondering if he should quit showbiz altogether. His best friend is Cliff Booth, an aging stuntman who was Dalton’s stunt-double in movies and TV. His career is largely over. While Booth ekes out an existence, Dalton still lives a life of relative luxury in Hollywood, rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous. In fact, his neighbors are Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate.
THE RUTHLESS by Renato De Maria –111’
A rebellious teen grows up to become one of Milan’s most ambitious criminals during the golden years of the ‘ndrangheta Mafia in the 1980s.
THE BIG STEP by Antonio Padovan– 96’
Since Dario Cavalieri, on a summer night in 1969, saw the live images of the first man landing on the moon, he has never stopped dreaming about going himself. ‘Bad Moon’, this is his nickname in town, has dedicated his entire life to that impossible dream, because dreams, as his father told him the night he disappeared without leaving any trace, is the difference between human beings and animals. Mario Cavalieri leads a regular and peaceful life in Rome where he owns a small hardware store with his mother. But one day his boring life is turned upside down when his mobile phone rings: his stepbrother Dario triggered a fire and ended up in prison. Dario’s mother died several years ago, and his father said he can’t go, so Mario is the only relative who can take care of that stepbrother he saw only once in his life. After some hesitations and doubts, Mario decides to take the trip to Northern Italy…
I HATE SUMMER by Massimo Venier –105’
Aldo, Giovanni, and Giacomo don’t know each other and lead separate lives. One day they accidentally meet on a little island off the Italian coast, because by mistake they have to share the same house they have rented separately. The clash is unavoidable. In this movie, the Italian trio tells a story of friendship and emotions in the footstep of their cinematographic tradition.
BOX OFFICE 3D by Ezio Greggio –102’
A series of parodies of some of the latest cinematic blockbusters: from Twilight to The Da Vinci Code, from The Gladiator to The Lord of the Rings, from Harry Potter to Avatar.
THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY by Giuseppe Capotondi –98′
The art world and the underworld collide in this elegant and erotic neo-noir thriller. Set in present-day Italy, irresistibly charismatic art critic James Figueras hooks up with provocative and alluring American, Berenice Hollis. He’s a classic anti-hero in the making with a charm that masks his ambition, whilst she’s an innocent touring Europe, enjoying the freedom of being whoever she wishes. The new lovers travel to the lavish and opulent Lake Como estate of a powerful art collector, Joseph Cassidy. Their host reveals he is the patron of Jerome Debney the reclusive J.D. Salinger of the art world, and he has a simple request: for James to steal a Debney masterpiece from the artist’s studio, whatever the cost.
FORD V FERRARI by James Mangold –152′
American car designer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles battle corporate interference, the laws of physics and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford and challenge Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966.
SWEPT AWAY by Lina Wertmüller –114’
A rich woman, Raffaella, and some friends rent a yacht to sail the Mediterranean Sea during summer. The sailor, Gennarino, who is a communist, does not like this woman but has to bear with her bad mood. One day she wakes up late in the afternoon and asks to be taken to a land where everyone had gone earlier. Gennarino sets up a boat but during the trip, the boat breaks down. They spend the night in the middle of the sea.
PARENTS IN PROGRESS by Laura Chiossone –85’
Simona is a single mother who lives for her son Filippo. While organizing his eighth birthday party, she faces the anxiety of getting everything right. At the party, an unexpected performance by Filippo breaks the mold and triggers a domino effect of actions and reactions that bring the party to derail.
OSCAR by Dennis Dellai –118’
1943. Oscar is a young Jewish musician who, thanks to his talent, gains the sympathy of the community in which he lives in the mandatory residence, because of the Italian race laws. He makes friends with the Podesta’s kids, Emma and Vittorio, and joins the village band conducted by the priest Don Franco. After 8th September and the Nazi occupation of Italy, Oscar and his family are forced to flee to escape persecution. Thanks to Emma and Don Franco, they will get in contact with an organization of Partisans, who will help them to reach salvation in Switzerland, a neutral country during the war. The film is freely inspired by the Italian experience of the Austrian jazz musician Oscar Klein.
WATER AND SUGAR: CARLO DI PALMA, THE COLOURS OF LIFE by Fariborz Kamkari – 90’
The docufilm is not only the biography of the legendary cinematographer and director, Carlo Di Palma, but an emotional journey into the greatest moment of Italian Cinema. From the neorealism of Luchino Visconti, Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini, to Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow Up” and “Red Desert” to the masterpieces of Woody Allen. Anecdotes, reflections, and commentary by prestigious figures of world cinema such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Woody Allen, Wim Wenders, Volker Schlondorf and Ken Loach, accompany us on this fascinating voyage infused with the colors and vision of an Italian cinema that will remain forever in the annals of world cinema and the films of the great contemporary genius, Woody Allen.
GINGER AND FRED by Federico Fellini – 125’
After a separation of several decades, Amelia and Pippo are reunited to perform their old music-hall act (imitating Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) on a TV variety show. It’s both a touchingly nostalgic journey into the past and a viciously satirical attack on television in general and Italian TV in particular, portraying it as a mindless freakshow aimed at morons.
