The Film Fest Gent, that takes place in Belgium from the 10th to the 20th of October 2017, dedicates its 44° edition to the Italian Cinema choosing as its visual campaign visual the image of the actress Claudia Cardinale since “she represents the Cinema Italiano we want to celebrate during this edition”, says Patrick Dynslaegher, artistic director of the festival. Other Italian characters put into the foreground will be the Jury members Aurelio Grimaldi (President) and Greta Scacchi.
The Festival offers this year a special section called “Focus on Italy”, in addition to the regular program where two Italian movies have been selected for the Official Selection Competition: A Ciambra by Jonas Carpignano, who will be present at the festival, and Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino. Moreover Roberto De Paolis, Fariborz Kamkari, Germano Maccioni, Silvio Soldini, Fabio Grassadonia will be guests of the festival.
“Focus on Italy” focuses on civil and social Cinema, considering that in the past “with ‘neorealist cinema’ Italy launched the most influential movement in history, we chose to emphasize one important aspect of Italian cinema in the retrospective part of the film festival, which will certainly resonate with modern audiences in these turbulent and uncertain times, putting forward questions that still dominate the country: the chasm between North and South, the mafia, corruption, the power of the church, its (unresolved) fascist past, the extremism of left-wing and right-wing parties, terrorism and the disastrous consequences of consumer culture”, explains Patrick Dynslaegher.
In the retrospective section “Italian Political Cinema”, the festival presents then ten classical movies such as The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Vittorio De Sica (1972) and Teorema by Pier Paolo Pasolini (1968).
The contemporary movies chosen for the section “Focus on Italy” look for a connection with this civil and social front. The nine titles are Stories of Love That Cannot Belong to This World, Black Souls, The Asteroids, the documentary produced by Luce Cinecittà Cinecittà Babilonia, Pure Hearts, Emma, Indivisible, Pericles The Black and Sicilian Ghost Story.
In “Artists on Films” is added the documentary Water and Sugar: Carlo di Palma, the Colours of Life and moreover the Festival dedicates a whole section called “Italian Shorts” to the italian short movies selecting five titles such as Per una Rosa by Marco Bellocchio and Mon Amour, Mon Ami by Adriano Valerio, which it has already been selected at the Biennale and TIFF.
The presence of Italian films and talents is organized with the support of Filmitalia dept' of Istituto Luce Cinecittà.