:: Spotlight :: 2010 International Rome Film Festival

By: Carmine Pascuzzi

The International Rome Film Festival has announced the line-up for their 2010 festival, which will run from October 28 - November 5, 2010. The fifth edition of the festival will see 146 feature films screen, including 16 in the Official Selection. Official Selection titles include Massy Tadjedin’s “Last Night,” starring Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington, which will open the Festival, Susanne Bier’s “In a Better World,” and John Cameron Mitchell’s awards contender “Rabbit Hole,” starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart. Out of Competition screenings include the late director Alain Corneau’s final film “Love Crimes,” Matt Reeves’ “Let Me In,” Guillaume Canet’s “Little White Lies,” Nigel Cole’s “Made in Dagenham,” and a special screening of the pilot fo Martin Scorsese’s “Boardwalk Empire.”

The Focus section of the festival will be turning its spotlights on Japan with seven European and International selected premieres. Program highlights include a retrospective dedicated to Studio Ghibli, the famous animation film studio by the acclaimed directors Takahata Isao and Miyazaki Hayao. Tributes within the Focus section to include: tributes to Akira Kurosawa and Satoshi Kon; the official exhibition of the Festival coordinated by photographer Mika Ninagawa; the floral installation on the red carpet by Japanese artist Shogo Kariyazaki; and opening event of the fifth edition of the Festival at Zaha Hadid’s Maxxi Museum.

The Extra section will be composed of 12 documentaries which will be competing for the Marc’Aurelio Award for Best Documentary, conferred by a specially organized International Jury presided by Folco Quilici. Films in the section include Thom Zimny’s “The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town,” Cameron Yates’ “The Canal Street Madam,” David Aronowitsch and Staffan Lindberg’s “Facing Genocide: Khieu Samphan and Pol Pot,” and Floris-Jan van Luyn’s “De Regenmakers.”

The festival will also present the annual Marc Aurelio Acting Award to Julianne Moore, whose film “The Kids Are All Right” will be screening out of competition. And it will celebrate the 50th anniversary of “La dolce vita,” Federico Fellini’s masterpiece. The Festival will be exhibiting a series of photographs showing some of the most renowned protagonists immortalized by the paparazzi of the time: Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, Marcello Mastroianni, Sofia Loren, Vittorio De Sica, Vittorio Gassman, Ugo Tognazzi, Alberto Sordi and Toto. A newly-restored version of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita will be world premiered on October 30 at the Auditorium Parco della Musica.

Finally, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Ugo Tognazzi’s death, the Festival will celebrate the legacy one of the greatest Italian actors of the 20th century. The documentary “Ritratto di mio padre,” directed by Maria Sole, Tognazzi’s daughter, will be premiered at the Festival.
A full list of films screening in competition is below.

International Rome Film Festival Competition

Dog Sweat
by Hosein Keshavarz, Iran – Usa, 2010, 90’ Cast: Sara Esfahani, Tahereh Azadi, Shahrokhi Taslimi, Ahmad Akbarzadeh, Rahim Zamani, Bagher Forohar, Maryam Mousavi

Five Day Shelter
by Ger Leonard, Ireland, 2010, 83’ Cast: John Lynch, Kate Dickie, Ger Ryan

Gangor
by Italo Spinelli, Italy - India, 2009, 91’ Cast: Adil Hussain, Samrat Chackrabarti, Priyanka Bose

Golakani Kirkuk / I fiori di Kirkuk / The Flowers of Kirkuk
by Fariborz Kamkari, apolide, 2010, 115’ Cast: Morjana Alaoui, Ertem Eser, Mohamed Zouaoui

In a Better World
by Susanne Bier, Denmark, 2010, 100’ Cast: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen

Io sono con te
by Guido Chiesa, Italy, 2010, 103’ Cast: Nadia Khlifi, Rabeb Srairi, Mustapha Benstiti

Kill Me Please
by Olias Barco, Belgium , 2010, 92’ Cast: Virgile Bramly, Aurelien Recoing, Benoit Poelvoorde

Last Night
by Massy Tadjedin, USA - France, 2008, 92’ Cast: Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes

La scuola è finita / School Is Over
by Valerio Jalongo, Italy, 2010, 85’ Cast: Valeria Golino, Vincenzo Amato, Fulvio Forti

Las buenas hierbas / The Good Herbs
by María Novaro, Mexico, 2010, 120’ Cast: Úrsula Pruneda, Ofelia Medina, Ana Ofelia Murguía

Bei Mian / The Back
by Liu Bingjian, France - Hong Kong, 2010, 85’ Cast: Hairong Tiantian, Huangyu Jialin, Qiu Muyuan

Little Sparrows
by Yu-Hsiu Camille Chen, Australia, 2010, 88’ Cast: Nicola Bartlett, Nina Deasley, Melanie Munt

Oranges and Sunshine
by Jim Loach, UK, Australia, 2009, 105’ Cast: Emily Watson, Hugo Weaving, David Wenham

Poll / The Poll Diaries
by Chris Kraus, Germany – Austria - Estonia, 2010, 129’ Cast: Paula Beer, Edgar Selge, Tambet Tuisk

Rabbit Hole
by John Cameron Mitchell, USA,2010, 90’ Cast: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest

Una vita tranquilla
by Claudio Cupellini, Italy – Germany - France, 2010, 105’ Cast: Toni Servillo, Marco D’Amore, Francesco Di Leva

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**Opening highlights**

Press Conference for the film Ritratto Di Mio Padre - a special documentary by Maria Sole Tognazzi, the daughter of the great actor Ugo Tognazzi.

Maria Sole Tognazzi

Maria Sole and other crew members at the press conference

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Shogo Kariyazaki did the flower installation on the red carpet

the girls from Premium Cinema - Erica and Maria

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**LAST NIGHT Photo Call**

Keira Knightley & Eva Mendes	Keira Knightley

Eva Mendes

Guillaume Canet	Guillaume Canet, Eva Mendes, Massy Tadjedin, & Keira Knightley

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**Opening Night Red Carpet**

The Opening Night Red Carpet event for Last Night was sabotaged by a protest march where hundreds marched on the festival to show their disapproval of the way the Italian government and other powerful bodies do not support the film industry. Many unemployed actors vented their feelings on stage. Some well-known Italian actors and directors came to support and organisers are expecting to repeat this show of strength each night of the festival. The whole situation was quite amazing. I hadn't seen anything like it.

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October 29-30 photo calls

David Michod - director ‘Animal Kingdom’

David Michod talks to Italian media

Ricky Tognazzi	Belinda Chayko - director ‘Lou’

Emily Watson	Jim Loach - director ‘Oranges And Sunshine’

Lancia promotional model

Kaspar Munk	Seena Rhamani

Priyanka Bose, Seena Rhamani & Dibang of the film ‘Gangor’	Seena Rahmani and Priyanka Bose

Gangor star Priyanka Bose on the red carpet

Gangor cast members

Gangor director Italo Spinelli (centre) and cast

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Remembering La Dolce Vita

Gucci and the Film Foundation hosted the world restoration premiere of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita. It was the 50th anniversary of the classic film and it was fitting that one of Fellini's great admirers, Martin Scorsese, was on hand in Rome to present the screening at the Festival. Gucci has supported several film restorations and the style and glamour and it was only natural for them to honour the legacy.

Martin Scorsese commented at the press conference: “There are films before ‘La Dolce Vita’ and then there are those after it. It breaks all the rules as far as narrative, boldness and style, and it changed society. This film modernised cinema. Without the past, there is no future.” He had an appreciation for Marcello Mastrioanni's character, especially the final scenes.

When asked about recent films, Scorsese said that he was heartened by some recent Italian films - new styles are developing.

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**Julianne Moore receives special award for life achievement in acting**

Julianne Moore at her press conference

Julianne Moore greets fans

Julianne Moore signs autographs

Julianne Moore receives Marc'Aurelio Award	Julianne Moore in audience

Julianne Moore on the Red Carpet

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The winners of the INTERNATIONAL ROME FILM FESTIVAL Collateral Awards were announced on the morning of November 5 in Sala Petrassi, as follows:

Libera Associazione Rappresentanti di Artisti Award for Best Italian Actor
Francesco Di Leva - Una Vita Tranquilla

Enel Cuore for Best Social Documentary (Extra Section)
Diol Kadd. Vita, diari e riprese in un villaggio del Senegal by Gianni Celati

Farfalla d’oro - Agiscuola Award
Kill Me Please by Olias Barco

Focus Europe Award for Best European Project
Director's Cut by Nader Takmil Homayoun (pronunciation on the last letter)

Eurimages Co-Production Development Award
Chaika by Miguel Angel Jiménez

[CINEMA.DOC] Award for the Best Italian Documentary
Le Radici e le Ali by Claudio Camarca and Maria Rita Parsi

Politeama Catanzaro Award - Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato. Great Music for Cinema
Annette Focks for Poll

HAG Award - Pleasure Moments
The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town by Thom Zimny

Lancia Musa and Diva Award
Micaela Ramazzotti and Cristiana Capotondi

WWF Award for Biodiversity
De Regenmakers by Floris - Jan Van Luyn

3 Social Movie Star Award
Fabrizio Gifuni

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**Announcement of Official Awards**

An international jury presided by Sergio Castellitto, and composed of journalist and writer Natalia Aspesi, director Ulu Grosbard, writer Patrick McGrath, director Edgar Reitz, and the director of the Multimedial Arts Museum in Moscow, Olga Sviblova, judged the films in Competition within the Official Selection.

The international jury conferred the:
- Marc’Aurelio Jury Award for Best Film: Kill Me Please by Olias Barco
- Marc’Aurelio Grand Jury Award: Hævnen – In a Better World by Susanne Bier
- Marc’Aurelio Special Jury Award: Poll by Chris Kraus
- Marc’Aurelio Jury Award for Best Actor: Toni Servillo for Una Vita Tranquilla
- Marc’Aurelio Jury Award for Best Actress: the entire female cast of Las Buenas hierbas
- Special Plaque of the President of the Italian Republic for the film which best emphasizes human and social values: Dog Sweat by Hossein Keshavarz

By means of an electronic system, the Festival provided for the participation of the audiences to the conferring of the Marc’Aurelio Audience Award for Best Film – BNL in Competition within the Official Selection.
The audiences conferred the:
- Marc’Aurelio Audience Award for Best Film – BNL: Hævnen – In a Better World by Susanne Bier

An international jury composed of documentary film makers, presided by da Folco Quilici, and composed of Anna Glogowski, Villi Herman, Alexandre O. Philippe and Kayo Yoshida, conferred the:
- Marc’Aurelio Award for Best Documentary in the Extra section: De Regenmakers by Floris-Jan Van Luyn

As of this 2010 edition, the Festival also conferred the Marc'Aurelio Award for Emerging New Talents, in collaboration with the Youth Department of the Presidency of the Council of Ministries. The new acknowledgement is meant so as to award the best director or best actor/actress at his/her first film.
The jury composed of Andrea Piersanti (chairman), Valentina Carnelutti, Claudio Giovannesi, Uliana Kovaleva and Giampaolo Rossi, conferred the:
- Marc’Aurelio Award for Emerging New Talents: Kaspar Munk for Hold Om Mig

The films in competition within the Alice nella città section received two Marc'Aurelio Alice nella città Awards. The winners were chosen by two juries: one composed of children from eight to thirteen years of age, and the other by teenagers from fourteen to seventeen years of age, both specially selected between audiences and schools.
The two kids juries conferred the:
- Marc’Aurelio Alice nella città Under 12 Award: I Want To Be a Soldier by Christian Molina
- Marc’Aurelio Alice nella città Over 12 Award: Adem by Hans Van Nuffel

The fifth edition of the Festival conferred the Marc'Aurelio Award in memory of the Italian screenwriter who passed away on July 31 of this year.

The Festival conferred the Marc’Aurelio Acting Award on Julianne Moore.

Notes on the winning films

Marc’Aurelio Jury Award for Best Film
Kill Me Please
by Olias Barco, Belgio, 2010, 96’
Cast: Virgile Bramly, Aurelien Recoing, Benoit Poelvoorde
An irresistible, grotesque black comedy, shot in black and white, and very politically incorrect. Medical pioneer Dr. Kruger (Aurélien Recoing) wants to rectify suicide. His dream is to create a therapeutic framework where suicide is no longer a tragedy but a simple, medically assisted act. But in the isolated mountains where the good doctor Kruger realizes his dream of the perfect suicide, Death strikes only when it decides the time has come.

Marc’Aurelio Grand Jury Award
Hævnen – In a Better World
by Susanne Bier, Denmark, 2010 - 113’
Cast: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen
Doctor Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) returns home to a quiet and dreary small Danish town from Sudan, where he works in a refugee camp. The story revolves around the lives of two families who cross and the extraordinary and risky friendship which blossoms between Elias (Markus Rygaard) and Christian (William Jøhnk Nielsen). A powerful reflection on the strength of peace activism and the overriding dominance of violence. Bier's film has been accused by the Sudan government of being anti-Islamic and its narration of the Darfur trauma has been denied.

Marc’Aurelio Special Jury Award
Poll
by Chris Kraus, Germany, Austria, Estonia, 2010 - 129’
Cast: Paula Beer, Edgar Selge, Tambet Tuisk
On the eve of World War I, 14-year-old Oda von Siering (Paula Beer) returns to her home, on the Baltic coast, a place uneasily shared by Germans, Russians and Estonians, at the border between Germany and the Russian empire during its dark decline. Oda's father, Ebbo (Edgar Selge), is a morbid scientist who has an obscure liking for experiments on racial breeding and controls the family with a cruel hand. The inquisitive and rebellious Oda nurses a wounded Estonian anarchist (Tambet Tuisk) back to health and what starts off as romantic child's play turns into an act of defiance able to trigger off an uncontrollable chain reaction.

Marc’Aurelio Jury Award for Best Actor
Toni Servillo
Una Vita Tranquilla
by Claudio Cupellini, Italy, Germany, France, 2010 - 105’
Cast: Toni Servillo, Marco D’Amore, Francesco Di Leva
Rosario Russo (Toni Servillo) hails from southern Italy, has a young family and is perfectly integrated in his new home near Frankfurt where he runs a restaurant and hotel business. He keeps a low profile, has changed identities, speaks an impeccable German - finally, his past is behind him. Until one day, his son Diego (Marco D'Amore), shows up at his doorstep, and his past suddenly comes back to haunt him.

Marc’Aurelio Jury Award for Best Actress
The entire female cast
Las Buenas hierbas
by Maria Novaro, Mexico, 2010 - 120’
Cast: Ursula Pruneda, Ofelia Medina, Ana Ofelia Murguìa, Mìriam Balderas
Dhalia (Ursula Pruneda) is separated, lives with her small son Cosmo (Cosmo González Muñoz) and works for a radio station. Her mother, Lala (Ofelia Medina), is in charge of the Botanical Gardens at Mexico's University. Their lives march on slowly until Lala is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and asks her daughter to help her before she completely loses her mind. Lala gives Dhalia her lastest research on plants and herbal remedies that, according to Pre-Columbian, Mexican tradition, cure the human soul.

Special Plaque of the President of the Italian Republic for the film which best emphasizes human and social values
Dog Sweat
by Hossein Keshavarz, Iran, USA, 2010 - 90’
Cast: Sara Esfahani, Tahereh Azadi, Shahrokhi Taslimi
Using the subversive urgency of cinéma vérité, the lives of six young people unfold in present day Iran. Misunderstood by their families and oppressed by conservative Islamic society, they act out their personal desires behind closed doors. Shot clandestinely throughout Tehran before the elections of 2009, Hossein Keshavarz's provocative film challenges the status quo by providing the new generation of Iranians a fervent voice of rebellion.

Marc’Aurelio Audience Award for Best Film – BNL
Hævnen – In a Better World
by Susanne Bier, Denmark, 2010 - 113’
Cast: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen
Doctor Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) returns home to a quiet and dreary small Danish town from Sudan, where he works in a refugee camp. The story revolves around the lives of two families who cross and the extraordinary and risky friendship which blossoms between Elias (Markus Rygaard) and Christian (William Jøhnk Nielsen). A powerful reflection on the strength of peace activism and the overriding dominance of violence. Bier's film has been accused by the Sudan government of being anti-Islamic and its narration of the Darfur trauma has been denied.

Marc’Aurelio Award for Best Documentary in the Extra section
De Regenmakers
by Floris-Jan Van Luyn Holland, 2010 - 70’
An unusual look at a vast, uncharted territory: the environment in China and its ecological condition. The viewers' guides on this journey are four Chinese activists who bravely engage in a daily struggle (mostly doomed to fail, as even these heroes seem to perceive) against the local authorities, lobbies large and small, outmoded mentalities and positions that won't budge.

Marc’Aurelio Award for Emerging New Talents
Kaspar Munk for Hold Om Mig
By Kaspar Munk, Denmark, 2010 - 76’
Cast: Julie Sandra Brochorst Andersen, Wili Julius Findsen, Sofia Mileva Cukic
Sara (Julie B. Andersen), Mikkel (Frederik Christian Johansen), Hassan (Hicham Najid) and Louise (Sofia Cukic) are four teenagers who are searching for their own identity and an anchor in their lives. One ill-fated day in the classroom a misunderstanding is thrown out of proportion and creates a wave of chaos. Suddenly they are the guilty ones and the victims of a game that has got out of hand.

Marc’Aurelio Alice nella città Under 12 Award
I Want To Be a Soldier
by Christian Molina, Spain, Italy, 2010 - 88’
Cast: Danny Glover, Fergus Riordan, Jo Kelly, Valeria Marini
Alex (Fergus Riordan) is an average 8-year-old child and like many others his age he has an imaginary friend, Astronaut Captain Harry Ben Temple. When his mother (Jo Kelly) gives birth to twins, Alex starts to have communication problems and becomes withdrawn. Hurt and betrayed, he uses emotional blackmail to persuade his father (Andrew Tarbet) to grant him his dearest wish: a TV set for his bedroom. Through Television, Alex discovers an exciting new world and changes not only his way of seeing things but also his imaginary alter ego into that of Sergeant John Cluster. He is so fascinated by images of war and violence that he becomes obsessed.

Marc’Aurelio Alice nella città Over 12 Award
Adem
by Hans Van Nuffel, Belgium, 2010 - 98’
Cast: Stef Aerts, Wouter Hendrickx
Tom (Stef Aerts) and his brother Lucas (Maarten Mertens) suffer from cystic fybrosis, a genetic disease that slowly destroys their lungs. In the hospital, Tom meets Xavier (Wouter Hendrickx), who suffers from the same illness but behaving like a top athlete. Xavier is a confirmed optimist, even when he is dumped by his girlfriend Anneleen (Marie Vinck). Tom takes in Xavier's energy and joy of life. He roams the hospital grounds and falls for the charms of quirky Eline (Anemone Valcke), who has been quarantined for months due to an infection. They are not allowed to touch and can only talk to each other over the phone. Yet, they start a romance.