The eighteenth edition will take place from June 27 to July 4 with guests such as Marco D’Amore, Giampaolo Morelli, the cast of “My Brilliant Friend”, Francesco Di Leva, Lillo Petrolo, Nando Paone, Alessandro Roja, Susy Laude
Lifetime Achievement Award to Sergio Rubini
80 selected works from 31 countries all over the world, 55 of which in competition
The Ischia Film Festival is going to be the first international live event held in Italy after the health emergency. The eighteenth edition will take place using a double formula, partly also online, from June 27 to July 4, 2020 by exploring the bond between cinema and location, according to the format of the festival.
Among the guests who are going to be in Ischia for this year’s edition there are: actors Giampaolo Morelli, Susy Laude, Alessandro Roja, Silvia D’Amico. Leading actor of the TV series “Gomorra” Marco D’Amore with his directorial debut “L’immortale”. Francesco Di Leva for Mario Martone’s “Il sindaco del rione Sanità”. Comedy actor Lillo Petrolo with his directorial debut “D.N.A. – Decisamente non adatti”. Director Carlo Luglio with his World Premiere “Il ladro di Cardellini”. In addition, the “stars” of the TV series “My Brilliant Friend. The Story of a New Name”: Gaia Girace, Margherita Mazzucco, Giovanni Amura, Francesco Serpico and Elvis Esposito who are coming back to Ischia after filming a couple of episodes of the second season.
The Life Achievement will be awarded to the actor, director and screenplay writer Sergio Rubini who will tell the audience of the festival about the privilege of working with Fellini, Tornatore, Salvatores, Muccino, Monicelli, Veronesi, Scola. In the previous years Ken Adam, Vittorio Storaro, Abel Ferrara, Pupi Avati, Amos Gitai, Pasquale Squitieri, John Turturro and Michele Placido have been awarded among others.
Movie screenings at the Aragonese Castle’s Piazza D’Armi will be held according to the health regulations.
“We are proud to announce this year’s guests live presence, our most heartfelt thanks go to them. – says Michelangelo Messina, festival’s artistic director. I would like to thank the whole team as well. It has never stopped throughout the lockdown and it managed to complete the evaluation of 700 entries from all over the world. Therefore, we are giving a good sign of recovery for the film industry from Ischia’s extraordinary and privileged spot”.
The 2020 selection is made up of 80 works between fiction and documentary, 55 of them in competition and 15 out of competition from 31 countries. Some of them have a really low audiovisual production such as Bangladesh, Kirghizistan and Bielorussia, but also from diametrically opposed cultures such as the United States and Russia, Iran and Israel, European countries whose audiovisual production does not easily reach us like Finland, Ireland, Poland, Greece and from afar, like Argentina, Japan and New Zealand. A journey across the world which is able to focus on highly topical issues: from the environment to gender-based violence, to social committment, historical reinterpretations and intimist meditation.
The confirmed sections are Feature films, Short films, Denied Location, Campanian Scenarios and this year’s addition, a new section dedicated to Animation works. 65% of the selected films is a premiere. Among the 51 premieres, 14 are World ones, 9 are European ones e 28 Italian ones. Compared to the previous years, these works are not going to be screened at the Aragonese Castle, but they are going to be available to watch on the festival’s self-produced platform www.ischiafilmfestivalonline.it by registering an account for free . Films are going to be available to watch within the 24 hours of the scheduled screening day only. The opening movie is going to be “Kathleen” by Liam O’Neil, a director who passed away as a result of Coronavirus. The winning works are going to be chosen by the jury composed by Karin Hoffinger, head of the International Relations at the Berlinale, by film critics Zlatko Vidackovic, artistic director at the Pola Film Festival and Emanuela Martini, director of the Turin Film Festival (feature films); by journalist Oscar Cosulich, by screenplay writer, director and actor Massimo Gaudioso and art historian Tommaso Strainati (denied location); by director, animator and illustrator Marino Guarnieri, by director Lorenzo Latrofa and director, screenplay writer and animator Francesco Filippi (animation); by actor Fabio De Caro, by psychiatrist and journalist Ignazio Senatore, producer and director Emanuele Palamara (short films and Campanian Scenarios).
The festival keeps following its path, bound to cinematographic works as an expression of territorial and cultural identity. It is hosting online the 18th International Film-Induced Tourism Convention along with the support of the Campania Region Film Commission on Friday, July 3, with the participation of leading international representatives of the Film-Induced Tourism phenomenon (Anica, Dgc, ItalyForMovies and the film commissions of Spain, Austria, England, Marche and Campania among others). This edition’s topic is “Future scenarios of audiovisual and post- coronavirus Film-Induced Tourism”
Ischia Film Festival is held under the High Patronage of the European Parliament, with the contribution of Campania Region (Directorate of cultural and touristic policies) and the General Cinema Direction of the BiBACT.
