Yesterday the 3rd edition of MittelCinemaFest organized by the Italian Cultural Institute of Budapest, Budapest Film, and with the collaboration of AIP-Filmitalia, drew to a close.
Entirely dedicated to Italian cinema- over a period of two weeks- the closing event was Susanna Tamaro’s “Nel mio amore” which was held in a very packed Puskin cinema. In attendance besides the film’s author and director were, Italian Ambassador to Budapest, S.E. Paolo Guido Spinelli, Director of the Italian Institute , Arnaldo Dante Marianacci, President of AIP-Filmitalia Giovanni Galoppi, screenwriter Roberta Mazzoni, and writer Raffaele Nigro. Prior to the screening, the Italian Cultural Institute hosted a book signing for the Hungarian edition of Tamaro’s Answer Me – from which the film was adapted. The festival drew over 3.000 spectators , and in between screenings featured long and animated discussions with the Italian film delegation : Luigi Lo Cascio for ”The Life I Want” by Giuseppe Piccioni, Barbora Bobulova for ”Cuore Sacro” by Ferzan Ozptek, Paolo Briguglia per il film di Pupi Avati ”Ma quando arrivano le ragazze?” , Alessandro D’Alatri who presented ”La febbre”, and Susanna Tamaro presenting Answer Me.
“I am particularly pleased by the success of this event, which was an excellent showcase of new contemporary Italian cinema. I hope that the Hungarian public, who in the past have loved the cinema from other generations, will appreciate the new Italian cinematography as it gives me great pleasure to witness such a vivid interest among the new generation.” declares the Ambassador Spinelli, while the Director of the Cultural Institute, Marinacci, underlines “ If one of the principal aims of this festival was to get the young Hungarians better acquainted with today’s Italian cinema, then this objective was fully achieved, since it was their active participation in the festival, which was most remarkable. We hope that in the year 2006- again thanks to the solid collaboration with AIP-Filmitalia - to maximixe the festival’s potential and make it more well known in countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Slovakia, where some films from this edition have already been programmed.”
Infact just this morning there was a profitable meeting between distributors and Hungarian producers, local film institutes and the president of AIP-Filmitalia, Giovanni Galoppi, also in anticipation of the coproduction agreement between Italy and Hungray to be signed in November.
The President of AIP-Filmitalia, Giovanni Galoppi, has stated: “The matching of cinema and litterature in this festival-also thanks to the illustrious presence of Susanna Tamaro and Raffaele Nigro –makes me particularly pleased. Our contemporary films are earning much praise throughout the Eastern block countries, where there is a particularly fertile market for Italy which needs to be developed further. I am convinced that events such as this one will continue to help strengthen Italian cinema’s popularity in Hungary and the distribution to its theatres.”