It was held today, November 8, in the Quattro Fontane movie theatre in Rome at 12.30 am, the press conference for the 40th edition of the Torino Film Festival which will take place in Turin from November 25 to December 3.

Present today, at the conference, many from the film industry, like Chiara Sbarigia, Cinecittà president, and also many journalists.

 

Opened the conference, Enzo Ghigo, National Museum of Cinema president, who decided to dwell on how the festival, this year, “wants appeal not only to cinephiles but, even more, to people who usually don’t go to theatres”.

Exactly for this reason we tried to engage the whole city of Turin with look of the city which, basically, consists in positioning throughout the city streets true work of arts, all created by Ugo Nespolo, who also realized this edition’s logo.

The other big news for this TFF is Casa Festival, a space open to all, located in the facilities which are being renovated by the Compagnia di San Paolo, where various meetings and events will take place, and where the Lounge will be held.

In addition, the Turin University New Assembly Hall will become TFF‘s Media Center.

 

Right after Lucia Borgonzoni, undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture, took the floor firstly by underlining the importance of the government intervention in these events and then by saying: ” these collaborations with the various Film Commissions are fundamental and, particularly this one with the Piedmont Region, is extremely successful”.

She added “These festivals help us increase employment, promote our territory, and of course boost the film industry”.

Then she spoke about various initiatives promoted by the Ministry of Culture to bring people back in movie theatres, emphasizing in particular the importance of engaging schools to attract the younger generations and remarking how fundamental is the contribution these festivals can give.

 

Domenico De Gaetano, National Museum of Cinema director, intervened to underline TFF prestigious story as well as the importance of this fortieth edition. He then announced that the opening ceremony this year will, once again, take place inside the Regio theatre and that Pilar Fogliati will be attending in honor of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Rosanna Purchia, assessor of culture of the Township of Turin, in her brief speech talked about Turin as a prestigious frame for this and other event as well as the city role in many cinematographic productions and then emphasized her enthusiasm for this fortieth edition of the TFF.

 

In the closing of the conference, the TFF director, Steve della Casa, decided, for a start, to thank all the festival’s founding partners, sponsors and collaborators as well as the whole staff, jury and everyone who made this edition possible. He, also, emphasized how “this project was realized by people from completely different backgrounds and cultures, which was fundamental in creating, I hope, such a great event” as well as the enthusiasm and harmony that characterized the teamwork behind the realization of this year TFF.

He then took some time to speak about the central role of movie theatres in this edition, topic that was the key point of this press conference, as well as to explain the initiatives taken by the festival to simplify participation in the festival for anyone interested.

Third and last topic of his speech, obviously, was this year movie selection “the titles chosen for this festival are all independent movies of various nature and genre, among them many documentaries, which have always been a fundamental part of this festival”.

173 the chosen movies, of which 135 are feature films and 24 are short films, of these, many will take part in the various competitions and many will be screened off-competition.

 

Furthermore, this TFF can vaunt many important guests, among them Malcolm McDowell, star of Clockwork Orange, Sergio Castellitto, Michele Placido and Noemi, who, together with Francesco De Gregori and other celebrities both from the music world and the movie industry, will take part in the opening ceremony which will discuss Beatles and Rolling Stones’ relationship with cinema.

 

For more info refer to torinofilmfest.org

 

📸Torino Film Festival