The 5th edition of the Milano Film Festival kicks off on Thursday 18 September, thus becoming "adult" and will never contribute as this year to making Milan the capital not only of fashion and design but also of culture and cinema. In fact, the program of the event is very rich, which will end on September 15th and it is once again organized by the Esterni association with the partnership of the Municipality of Milan and some important companies, such as Vodafone or Banca Prossima, the Intesa Sanpaolo Group bank dedicated to non-profits, which is the Special Project Partner of this edition.
The nerve center of the festival will, as always, be the Strehler Theater in Milan, with its churchyard, and the Teatro Studio, which will be joined by Parco Sempione, the Triennale di Milano – Theater of Art, the Spazio Oberdan, the Cascina Cuccagna, the San Fedele Auditorium and the Ex Bazzi Area, which will come alive for 11 days of cinema, music and meetings with international guests and directors.
The eighteenth edition continues the path started by the two directors Alessandro Beretta and Vincenzo Rossini, who again this year are curating a festival attentive to new productions and independent cinema, which presents about 200 works arriving from all over the world, tracing a path among the bravest international cinematographies, rarely visible in theaters, between previews and meetings with emerging talents.
But here is the program, which includes the usual Feature Film Competition, open only to first and second works by directors from all over the world, and the traditional Short Film Competition, reserved for directors under 40, supported by sections out of competition, preview films, guests, workshops and parallel events.
Of the 11 upcoming feature films, 8 are shot by female directors. Among the selected films, Mirage à l'Italienne by Alessandra Celesia, an Italian director who works in France, tells the mirage of other possible lives in a Turin bled dry by the economic crisis; The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas, by the Greek director Elina Psykou, Best Work in Progress at Karlovy Vary 2012, a merciless and non-consoling film, which brings television and the Greek crisis into play, "shot on" a surprising Christos Stergioglou, “no longer young” emerging actor of Greek cinema; Ilo Ilo by Anthony Chen, winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes, which evokes the ghosts of the Asian financial collapse of the 90s, through the story, set in Singapore, of the relationship between a bourgeois family and the new Filipino maid.
among the upcoming short films on the other hand, Fatigués d'être beaux stand out starring Denis Lavant, fantastic actor fetish of Leos Carax (Holy Motors); Peristalsi by Enrico Iannaccone, an original work by the winner of the David di Donatello 2013, which will be present at the festival; Solecito on a project by Olafur Eliasson and directed by Oscar Ruiz Navia, director of the new Colombian cinema, present in the Feature Film Competition of the Milano Film Festival in 2009 and in Competition at the Quinzaine 2013; Don't Fear Death by Louis Hudson, world première of the Short Film Competition in the presence of the director, who will also hold a workshop on animation; La lampe au beurre de yak by Hu Wei, a young Chinese director who will be in Milan for the presentation, a short film co-produced in France, in competition at the Semaine; L'aurore boréale by Keren Ben Rafael, an entertaining comedy from the best contemporary short French cinema, with Hippolyte Girardot and his daughter Ana; Chigger Ale (here come the problems) by Fanta Ananas, a bizarre and curious film directly from the Ethiopian new wave, where many young filmmakers are getting involved.
Milano Film Festival also pays homage to Sylvain George, author of political and experimental cinema, whose works it presents in an extensive review, and among the novelties of 2013 it is worth mentioning the collaboration with Novamont and Ecozema, developed to limit the environmental impact of the festival: all refreshment points will in fact use biodegradable and compostable disposable tableware, which will be delivered in containers dedicated to the collection of the organic fraction.
Finally, great curiosity for the countryside Adopt a Director, which involved over one hundred Milanese citizens who will offer hospitality to directors and artists arriving in Milan from all over the world: an alternative hospitality project that offers an extraordinary opportunity to get to know the true protagonists of the festival up close. The appointment is therefore from 5 to 15 September 2013; for all updates, the website www.milanofilmfestival.it can always be consulted
Attachments: MFF2013_programme_day_by_day.pdf
