ITALIAN SCREENS, an initiative by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual of the Italian Ministry of Culture, organized by Cinecittà, lands in Beirut. Italian Screens is a selection of movies chosen among the most representative of the contemporary Italian cinematographic production. It is mainly about movies released in 2023, many of which have triumphed at the 69th edition of the David di Donatello Award and received numerous national and international awards in the most prestigious and renown film festivals around the world: Cannes International Film Festival, Film Festival of Rome, Göteborg Film Festival in Sweden, BCN Film Fest 2024, etc. Among the chosen movies, there are four out of the five finalists at the David di Donatello and a selection of short movies.
The event is part of the 7th edition of the annual review, ‘Fare Cinema’, and is organized by the Italian Embassy in Lebanon and the Italian Cultural Institute i
n Beirut from July 5th to July 13th, 2024, at Cinemacity-Beirut Central District.
“Fare Cinema” is the thematic review dedicated to the promotion of Italian cinema and film industry, organized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in collaboration with MiC, ANICA, ICE, Istituto Luce-Cinecittà, Italian Film Commission and Accademia del Cinema Italiano-Premi David di Donatello.
Launched in 2018, it foresees the organization of events by the diplomatic and consular network and by the Italian Cultural Institutes, with the dual objective of promoting abroad both Italian cinema and the professional know-how of Italian operators in this field – actors, directors, screenwriters, directors of photography, scenographers, composers, costume designers, makeup artists, editors, special effects technicians, … – who are all part of the movie production complex machine and who, in front of or behind the camera, contribute to the success of our cinema in Italy and abroad.
The Ambassador o
f Italy in Lebanon, Fabrizio Marcelli, stressed how ‘Italian film making changed in recent years, notably the perception of Italian cinema abroad has changed since the value registered in the four-year period 2017-2021 rose by 124% compared to the first 10 years of the 21st century, increasing from 41 to 92 million euros. The quality also changed. Since 2000, Italian films have been present in all the major festivals in the world, and the percentage of co-productions with Italy has increased in parallel as well’.
Along with Italian Screens, a tribute to Marcello Mastroianni will be paid on the 100th anniversary of his birth. The micro-review is representative of the great Italian actor’s versatility. It includes one title, “8 ½,” which sanctions the partnership between Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni, an actor who played the director’s cinematic alter ego, and another, Vittorio De Sica’s “Matrimonio all’italiana”, interpreted alongside Sophia Loren, with whom Mastroianni made 14 films, which marked
the Italian artistic landscape.
The other two chosen titles – “Il bell’Antonio” and “Oggi, domani, dopodomani” – are different acting performances by Mastroianni, bearing witness to his ability to range, like few others, from dramatic to comic roles, having the courage to simultaneously construct and demolish the traditional image of the Latin lover, offering a fragile and ironic, yet equally seductive, male model.
According to the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute Angelo Gioè, ‘cinema is often the sole cultural outpost in a community and the most readily available, for all ages and social groups; a place where emotions are amplified by a shared viewingsion. Cinema mirrors the society of the country of origin, often analyzing its vices and virtues, opening new perspectives on historic facts, and so promoting one’s cinema, past and contemporary, means promoting one’s country (and also one’s economy) in a more accessible form, albeit not always easier to understand’.
David of Donatello Award 2024
C’è ancora domani, directed by Paola Cortellesi
La chimera, directed by Alice Rohrwacher
Io capitano, directed by Matteo Garrone
Il sol dell’avvenire, directed by Nanni Moretti
Recent films
Comandante, directed by Edoardo De Angelis
Ultima notte d’amore, directed by Andrea Di Stefano
Palazzina LAF, directed by Michele Riondino
Non riattaccare, directed by Manfredi Lucibello
Romantiche, directed by Pilar Fogliati
Shorts
Asterion, directed by Francesco Montagner
Foto di gruppo, directed by Tommaso Frangini
In quanto a noi, directed by Simone Massi
The meatseller, directed by Margherita Giusti
We should all be futurists, directed by Angela Norelli
Mastroianni Retrospective
8 ½ , directed by Federico Fellini
Matrimonio all’italiana, directed by Vittorio De Sica
Oggi, domani e dopodomani, directed by Eduardo de Filippo, Luciano Salce, Marco Ferreri
Il bell’Antonio, directed by Mauro Bolognini
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon