The 2023 edition of. continues with great success i-fest, International Film Festivalcreated by the Castrovillarese actor Giuseppe Panebianco and the Palermo communication manager Glauce Valdini, which until Sunday will give Calabria great events cultural and exclusive moments of entertainment dedicated to the “big screen”, all with free admission. After the success of the first three editions, dedicated respectively to Fellini, Mastroianni and the women who made the history of Italian cinema, this year the festival celebrates the 60th anniversary of Luchino Visconti’s historic film «Il Gattopardo»through a tribute to its magnificent interpreter: Claudia Cardinale, protagonist of the 2023 manifesto.
The first days of the festival, dedicated to the international contest “Orizzonti” (in media partnership with Rai Cinema Channel and in collaboration with the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and SIAE, in which over a thousand directors from all over the world participated), thanks to the availability of the director of the Sisca prison of Castrovillari Giuseppe Carrà, saw the screening of a special selection of “Short Films” inside the institute, as part of the “Cinema Without Borders” project, while in the evening they saw the opera the territorial juries (adults/young people and children) to select the winners from the 80 works divided into the five categories in competition: “Short Film”, “Doc”, “Young Talents Short”, “Young Talents Feature” and “Animation”.
Then, in addition to the inauguration of the four exhibitions, two photographic and two digital, dedicated to Cardinale and the great director Franco Zeffirelli, space for the screenings of the films of the six, very interesting out-of-competition sections (including “Eye on Venice”, “Oriente Express ”, Mondo Doc” and “Retrospettive”), as well as the screening of some national premiere films (from «Panthom», by Lee Hae-Young, which opened the festival, to «Kaymak» by Milcho Manchevski, up to «Call of God”, KimKi-Duk’s posthumous masterpiece) and an intense teaching activity. In the chair, among others, two great directors: Canadian Paul Haggis, twice Oscar winner, and Milcho Manchevski, Golden Lion in 1994, to whom the festival is dedicating a complete retrospective. Haggis returned, two years later, to Castrovillari for a well-attended masterclass on writing for cinema, «Tell me a story», while Manchevski recounted the most important events of his incredible career.
The evening events at the Aragonese Castle start from today, with the artistic director Panebianco, the director of My Movies Giancarlo Zappoli, experts and journalists who will interview the guests. It starts today (8.30 pm) with the Sicilian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta, the talented Calabrian director Massimiliano Bruno and again Manchevski. Tomorrow the second edition of the international “Calabria del Cuore” award, in collaboration with the Gli Amici del Cuore association: will present the model Aida Yespica. The contest awards ceremony will be held on Saturday and two great protagonists: the actors Franco Nero and the Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr.. The grand finale will be on Sunday, with the national preview screening of «A Strange Way of Life» by Pedro Almodóvar.