The 12^th Rome Film Festival (Oct 26 – Nov 5) has secured a number of high profile participants and screenings in its eleven-day run. As in previous editions, the Auditorium Parco Della Musica will be the heart of the festival and its red carpet will be graced by Hollywood stars such as Christian Bale, Channing Tatum, Jake Gyllenhaal and Margot Robbie. With a line up of a total of 46 films, the fest will start with opener Hostiles, by Scott Cooper, a Western that explores then-undeveloped territories as a fertile ground for nihilism, despair, and self-reflection and will continue with a large program of master classes, tributes, retrospectives, panels, and special events.

This year’s edition will have Africa in mind with the slogan, Africa, You Aren’t Nothing To Me, a campaign created by Sabina Leoni to celebrate Amref Health Africa’ Italia’ sixtieth anniversary. Exhibitions, events, and a short film will be followed by a documentary by Werner Herzog devoted to Amref founders, The Flying Doctors of East Africa. The Rome Film Fest will also express its commitment to Fighting Violence Against Women by hosting three events, the films: Sara, by Stefano Pistolini and Massimo Salvatore; Is about love by Elisabetta Lodolo and Uccisa in attesa di giudizio by Andrea Constantini, to show that cinema is a primary force in creating awareness of the issue of respect towards women,

Contemporary art will be under the spotlight at The Auditorium Parco Della Musica, where the exhibition Trame d’Autore, a project promoted and conceived by Simona Marchini, will present six videos stemming from the interaction between six artists, six writers, and six directors. To salute the restoration of Miseria e nobiltà by Mario Mattoli, the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Cinematography Centre) has selected a series of remarkable photographs of Totò, The Neapolitan actor, one of the undisputed greats in the history of Italian cinema, theatre, and comedy,

The 12^th Edition of Rome Film Festival has chosen to pay tribute to David Lynch, 40 years after the release of his first feature film Eraserhead. The director of films known for their surreal atmosphere, hypnotic images and non-linear plots, will received this year the Lifetime Achievement and will take the stage for a conversation with Fest audiences to retrace the steps of his remarkable career and to speak about the three films that have influenced his filmmaking the most, including Fellini’s 8 ½.

Also at the Parco Della Musica, the Close Encounters section will devote its program to onstage conversations with directors, actors, and important cultural and sports figures. Among them, the original and charismatic director Xavier Dolan, who at twenty-eight, already has an impressive film career to his credit, starting with Mommy that won Grand Jury Prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival that followed with the 2016 Grand Prix for It’s Only the End of the World.

Golden Globe nominee Ian McKellen will be sharing his love of cinema and specifically the comic genius of Jacques Tati while his career will be documented in Joe Stephenson’s work McKellen: Playing the Part, based on an exclusive 14-hour interview with Ian McKellen during which the English actor talks about his life, his career, and his work as a gay activist. While director, composer, pianist, conductor and musicologist, Michael Nyman will take the stage at the Auditorium to talk about the close bond between cinema and music and his career in visual art and photography, legendary British actress and Golden Globe winner Vanessa Redgrave, considered one of the world’s greatest living actresses, with a career spanning over fifty years, will attend an onstage conversation to look back on her brilliant and intense career that culminates with this year documentary Sea of Sorrow, that marks her directorial debut. The film is the result of the actress’ personal journey in Italy and Greece, in Lebanon, in Calais and London, following the tracks of people who abandoned their own country to flee war, dictatorship, and violence.