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Best Film: “Dev Bhoomi – Land of the Gods” (Goran Paskaljevic)

The journey into a reality so far away from us, where centuries old traditions clash with the aim and the need of new feminine generations to access education and self-determination, is transformed by the film director into a high quality cinematic tale.

Best Actor: Leonardo Sbaraglia (El otro hermano/The Lost Brother)

 Leonardo Sbaraglia gives life and body to the complex and originally evil nature of the main character of “El otro hermano”.

Best Actress: Hera Hilmar (“An Ordinary Man”)

Though only 28 years old, Hera Hilmar stands up to the co-lead actor Ben Kingsley in “An Ordinary Man” and, with a subtracting work, she is able to create a powerful and surprising character.

Breakthrough Actor of the Festival: Andrea Carpenzano (“Tutto quello che vuoi”)

Together with the award to an already renowned actor such as Leonardo Sbaraglia, the Jury unanimously wants to highlight the debut work of Andrea Carpenzano, lead actor of the good film by Francesco Bruni “Tutto quello che vuoi”. Andrea Carpenzano receives a special mention as breakthrough actor of the Festival.

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 Federico Fellini Platinum Award for Cinematic Excellence

ANDREJ KONČALOVSKIJ

An eclectic author, an intelligent, farsighted but also – and above all – brave artist who successfully faced complex challenges, both artistic and technical, in his cinema and theatre work.

A director who resolutely anticipated the future, using 3D in his The Nutcracker, and also in his television work with projects such as The Winter Lion and The Odissey.

His cinema – including films such as Runaway Train, Maria’s Lovers, Assia and the Hen with the Golden Eggs, The Inner Circle, House of Fools, Il Peccato – demonstrates a constant commitment to explore existence through a great work of research, thought and action.

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PRESS RELEASE April 20, 2017

Like every year, there will be many Italian and foreign cinema professionals attending Bif&st, the festival in Bari from April 22 to 29, chaired by Margarethe von Trotta and directed by Felice Laudadio.
Among actresses and actors:
Francesco Acquaroli (Alberto Sordi Award), Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (Anna Magnani Award), Claudia Cardinale, Renato Carpentieri, Andrea Carpenzano, Chiara Caselli (jury president of International Panorama competition), Antonio Catania, Fortunato Cerlino, Giorgio Colangeli, Sabrina Ferilli (Federico Fellini Award), Stefano Fresi, Alessandro Gassmann (Cinema Lessons), Paola Gassman, Elio Germano, Corrado Giannelli, Giancarlo Giannini, Leopoldo Mastelloni, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Maurizio Micheli, Andrea Occhipinti, Micaela Ramazzotti, Primo Reggiani, Michele Riondino, Barbara Ronchi (Alida Valli Award), Paolo Rossi, Ninì Salerno, Greta Scacchi (Cinema Lessons), Riccardo Scamarcio (Vittorio Gassman Award), Federico Tolardo, Pamela Villoresi, Nicolas Vaporidis, Vittorio Viviani.

Among film directors:

Gianni Amelio, Francesca Archibugi (Luciano Vincenzoni Award), Fanny Ardant and Dario Argento and Pupi Avati (Cinema Lessons and Federico Fellini Award), Alessandro Aronadio, Davide Barletti, Francesco Bruni, Maccio Capatonda, Fabrizio Cattani, Lorenzo Conte, Toni D’Angelo, Edoardo De Angelis, Andrea De Sica, Irene Dionisio, Alan Gilsenan, Claudio Giovannesi (Mario Monicelli Award), Francesco Giuffré (Theatre workshop), Ugo Gregoretti, Fariborz Kamkari, Andrej Konchalovskij (Cinema Lessons and Federico Fellini Award), Daniele Maggioni, Fabio Mollo, Giuliano Montaldo, Goran Paskaljevic, Jacques Perrin (Cinema Lessons and Federico Fellini Award), Louis-Julien Petit, Pif (Pierfrancesco Diliberto), Antonio Pisu, Nicola Ragone, Claudio Risi, Giancarlo Scarchilli, Volker Schlöndorff (Cinema Lessons and Federico Fellini Award), Alexandre Valenti, Carlo Vanzina, Mimmo Verdesca, Daniele Vicari.

And also: press agent Enrico Lucherini (Special Events); musicians Enzo Avitabile (Ennio Morricone Award), Andrea Guerra, Lele Marchitelli, Pivio, Giuliano Taviani; producers Claudio Bonivento, Ivan Brienza, Adriana Chiesa, Roberto Cicutto, Tilde Corsi, Massimo Cristaldi, Gianluca Curti, Attilio De Razza and Pier Paolo Verga (Franco Cristaldi Award), Elda Ferri, Elisabetta Olmi, Domenico Procacci, Massimo Spano; costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini (Piero Tosi Award), art director Marco Dentici (Dante Ferretti Award); screenwriters Nicola Guaglianone, Valentino Picone and Fabrizio Testini (Tonino Guerra Award), Antonio Manca, Silvia Scola, Enrico Vanzina; cinematographers Rocco Marra (Giuseppe Rotunno Award) and Luciano Tovoli; editors Roberto Perpignani and Marco Spoletini (Roberto Perpignani Award); theatre critics Rita Cirio and Maurizio Giammusso; essayists and scholars Alberto Anile, Ennio Bispuri, Franco Cassano, Paolo D’Agostini, Caterina D’Amico, Steve Della Casa, Fabrizio Deriu, Piero Di Siena, Paolo Mereghetti, Giuseppe Vacca.

Among the special programs of Bif&st there is great expectation for “Cinema and Science” with the presence of renowned scientists such as Enrico Alleva, Roberto Argano, Fulvio Fraticelli, Domenico Pignone, Antonio Navarra; and also Franco Marozzi, Giuseppe De Mola of Médecins Sans Frontières and prof. Cristina Cattaneo, the anatomist-pathologist who is engaged since many years in the identification of migrants drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. All of these scientists will give a talk after the daily screening of a film, with free admission, in the Multicinema Galleria at 4 p.m.

The Barion Club will be the new venue (since the traditional Teatro Margherita is under renovation) for the press conferences at 1 p.m., for the afternoon meetings at 5 p.m. on Vittorio Gassman, Dino Risi and Totò hosted by the great French film critic Jean Gili, and for the Focus at 7 p.m. hosted by Franco Montini, president of the National union of film critics, with the participation of the award winners.

Most of the festival events are free. For the Multicinema Galleria free screenings a ticket must be collected thirty minutes in advance at the cinema cashier, on a first-come, first-served basis.

“I would like to point out – added Laudadio – an exceptional aspect of the communication related to Bif&st. No other Italian festival, from the most important one, the Venice festival, to other medium ones such as Rome and Turin, has the privilege of three dedicated inserts or specials, indipendently made by important dailies as Corriere del Mezzogiorno, La Repubblica and, starting this year,  La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno. These inserts confirm again – definitively, I would say – the deep rooting in Apulia achieved by the festival in very few years. This is the reason why important institutions and companies such as Confidustria and ANCE Bari and BAT,  Gruppo Menelao, Gruppo Marino Automobili have tangibly invested on this young film festival promoted by Apulia Region and produced by Apulia Film Commission.”

International Premières

The Petruzzelli Theatre will host nine films, absolute Italian or world premières:

April 22: LA TENEREZZA by Gianni Amelio with Renato Carpentieri, Elio Germano, Micaela Ramazzotti, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Maria Nazionale, Greta Scacchi – Italy 2017, world première
Feelings intertwined between laughing and violence: a father and his unloved kids, a brother and a sister in conflict, a young couple who seems happy, and children witnessing what they cannot rebel. The film follows the story of two families in an unusual middle-class Naples, further away from the suburbs, where wealth can turn into tragedy, even though hope is right at hand.
Italian distribution Rai Cinema-01 Distribution

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A record number of nine Cinema Lessons will take place every day at 11 a.m. from April 22 to 29 at Bif&st-Bari International Film Festival, chaired by Margarethe von Trotta and directed by Felice Laudadio.

Opening on April 22th at 11 in Petruzzelli Theatre will be Andrei Konchalovsky, with a Master Class after the screening of his recent film, Paradise. On the next day there will be actor and film director Alessandro Gassmann, who will also talk about his father Vittorio, to whom the festival dedicates a large retrospective. On the 24^th it will be the turn of actress Greta Scacchi, and on the 25^th of film director Pupi Avati. On the 26^th film directors Carlo and Enrico Vanzina will commemorate their father and great director Steno, on the occasion of the 100^th anniversary of his birth. The master of thriller films Dario Argento will hold his Cinema Lesson on April 27^th, and actress Fanny Ardant together with Margarethe von Trotta will be engaged in a joint conversation on the 28^th, after the screening of von Trotta’s Three Sisters. The great actor and producer Jacques Perrin, to whom Bif&st dedicates the program “Cinema and Science”, will be on stage on the 29^th after the screening of The Desert of the Tartars by Valerio Zurlini. The Academy Award winner Volker Schlöndorff  will close the Cinema Lessons, in the afternoon of April 29^th, after the screening of his film Return to Montauk, absolute Italian première.

Master Classes in the Petruzzelli Theatre have a daily average audience of over a thousand, mostly young, people.

The complete program of Bif&st 2017 will be announced in a press conference on April 12^th in the Casa del Cinema in Rome.

Photo: an image of Petruzzelli Theatre during a Cinema Lesson

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Bif&st 2017, eighth and a half edition (including the 2009 pilot edition) of Bari International Film Festival, will be held – under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic – from Saturday 22 to Saturday 29 April 2017, promoted by Apulia Region – president Michele Emiliano; by the Council for Tourism and Cultural Industry headed by Loredana Capone; in collaboration with the City of Bari, mayor Antonio Decaro; produced by Fondazione Apulia Film Commission, president Maurizio Sciarra, deputy president Giandomenico Vaccari, CEO Antonio Parente.

Bif&st is supported, also financially, by: SIAE (Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori), general director Gaetano Blandini; Confindustria Bari e BAT, president Domenico De Bartolomeo; ANCE Bari e BAT, president Giuseppe Fragasso; Gruppo Menelao headed by Michele Boccardi; Gruppo Marino Automobili (Renauto) headed by Luisa Cavallo Marino; Circolo Canottieri Barion headed by Luigi Lobuono. Technical sponsors are: Monile di Aldo Arata and MarioMossa Gioielliere; Cinemeccanica; Stelci&Tavani. Main media partner is RAI, other media partners are: Corriere del Mezzogiorno, La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, La Repubblica, Ilikepuglia, La Feltrinelli.

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Bif&st 2017 entry form is now available for submissions to the competitive section International Panorama, reserved to new feature films (over 70 minutes), fiction only, produced in 2016-17, absolute Italian premières at the date of the festival.

No documentaries nor short films will be accepted.

Entry is free of charge. Deadline is March 16th, 2017.
Please read the regulations and fill in the online Entry Form.

Screeners can be sent through a secure link (valid for multiple viewings) to g.lavolpe@bifest.it, or on DVD or Blu-Ray to: Bif&st director Felice Laudadio, Lungotevere Flaminio 44, pal. VI, sc. C, int. 7 – 00196 Rome – Italy.

Submissions are open for feature films at Bif&st-Bari International Film Festival (April 22-29, 2017) for the “International Panorama” competition, which will present 12 films from all countries (including some produced in Italy). Selected films will be screened in Petruzzelli Theatre at 4 and 6 p.m. Submitted films must be absolute Italian premieres at the dates of Bif&st. No documentaries nor short films are accepted. Regulations and entry form will be online very soon, but screeners are already welcome. DVDs can be sent to: Felice Laudadio, direttore Bif&st, Lungotevere Flaminio 44, pal. VI, sc. C, int. 7 – 00196 Rome – Italy.  Links for online preview to: g.lavolpe@bifest.it.