Festivals

The 17th annual Rome Film Festival, which ran from October13-23, 2022, welcomed numerous artists and celebrities to one of the largest red carpets in the world at the Auditorium Parco della Musica. The festival, led by new artistic director, former RAI executive Paola Malanga and president Gian Luca Farinelli, hosted 130 titles on 28 screens across Rome.

Ichiyama Shozo (Japan 1963), the Programming Director of the Tokyo International Film Festival since last year, was also in charge of selecting their films from 1992 to 1999. Then in 2000 he launched the Film Festival Tokyo FILMeX and served as its director.

The 66th London Film Festival closing ceremony went out with a bang. Rian Johnson presented his murder mystery sequel, Glass Onion: Knives Out Mystery as the festival’s finale.

Founded in 1985, the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is the only Japanese event accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF), and one of the leading movie festivals in Asia. The first four editions were biannual.

For Samuel Douek, director and founder of the Hola México Festival – which celebrates films made in the tricolor country – it was a great opportunity for the Los Angeles audience in these post-pandemic days to experience current, rebellious, romantic cinema, full of opportunities and characters with dilemmas and dreams of our times with a Mexican stamp and flavor. “We are very pleased to be able to count on the support of an association like the HFPA, which has done wonders for international cinema in the United States and around the world,” Douek stressed.

On October 11th, the 49th Film Fest Gent in Belgium kicked off its official competition in unique fashion: the entire red carpet was covered with hundreds of colorful bouquets of flowers to celebrate Close, the new film by Lukas Dhont. The director, born and raised in Ghent, is no stranger to the festival.

Laura Mora’s second feature, The Kings of The World, which recently won the top prizes in San Sebastian and Zurich, is a film about having (or not having) a safe place in the world. It follows the 19-year-old Ra (Carlos Andres Castaneda), who lives and hustles in the streets of Medellin.

The 66th London BFI Film Festival is now open. Kicking off the proceedings was the eagerly anticipated Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical – starring Alisha Weir as Matilda, who makes her debut in the titular role, and Emma Thompson as the dastardly Miss Trunchbull.

Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin have long established themselves as an appealing comedy duo, as evidenced by their seven-year run in the titular roles in the hit series Grace and Frankie. Theirs is an onscreen relationship which dates to 1980, with their starring roles in the three-time Golden Globe nominated movie, 9 to 5.

Dinara Drukarova is a well-known Russian actress with a long list of films on her CV such as Paris, je t’aime (2006) Amour (2012) and Compartment Number 6 (2021). Now, she has made her debut as a director with the film Woman at Sea in which she also plays the leading character, Lili.