Italian Film Festival opens in HCM City

ITALIAN CINEMA – The award-winning Leonora Addio directed by Paolo Taviani is among six Italian films that are being screened at the Italian Film Festival 2023 held in HCM City from December 3-8. Photo courtesy of the Consulate General of Italy in HCM City

HCM CITY — Six outstanding Italian movies are being screened at the Italian Film Festival 2023 held in HCM City until November 8.

The festival is organised by the Consulate General of Italy in HCM City in coordination with the Asian Film Festival in Rome, COLAB Vietnam, and CGV Cinema, to offer Vietnamese audiences a glimpse into contemporary Italian cinema.

Italian Consul General Enrico Padula said, “Italian cinema has always been highly appreciated in Việt Nam for its artistic qualities and as a window into its society, past and present. This film festival offers HCM City audiences the latest movies coming from Italy, well representing the contemporary evolution of its cinema.”  

The screening features one comedy, three drama and two crime action movies, some of which have won accolades at prestigious festivals.

The films are curated by Antonio Termenini, Artistic Director of the Asian Film Festival in Rome, who will join the audiences of each film in Q&A sessions.

The works tell the tales of urban life, depicting modern Italian society in the face of new challenges while also trying to connect with and maintain its age-old traditional heritage.

The award-winning drama Leonora Addio directed by Paolo Taviani recounts the daring adventure of Pirandello’s ashes and the eventful journey of the urn from Rome to Agrigento.

The film won the FIPRESCI (the International Federation of Film Critics) Prize at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival in 2022.

Giulia Louise Steigerwalt’s September is a journey of three characters who realize that the life they find themselves in is not the one they had dreamed of.

The film earned Steigerwalt Best New Director awards at the annual David di Donatello Awards given out by the Academy of Italian Cinema in 2023, and the Silver Ribbon Awards by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists in 2022.

The crime action series Diabolik (2021) and Diabolik – Ginko Attacks (2022) by directors Antonio Manetti and Marco Manetti are set in the fictional state of Clerville in the late 1960s.

The films follow a battle between master thief Diabolik and his accomplice Eva Kant with inspector Ginko, who tries to stop his evil plans.

Meanwhile, Francesca Archibugi’s drama The Hummingbird (2022) is about the life of fateful coincidences, loss, and loves of the male protagonist Marco Carrera, or “the hummingbird”, based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Sandro Veronesi.

Another drama, The Return Of Casanova (2023) directed by Gabriele Salvatores, tells the story of an experienced and acclaimed director at the end of his career, who has no intention of accepting his own decline.

All screenings will start at 7pm at CGV Lý Chính Thắng at 83 Lý Chính Thắng in District 3. Admission is free. — VNS