Film Festival: 10 must-see events in the world of cinema
Film Festival: a tribute to the seventh art
Film festivals are organized all over the world, celebrating the seventh art and its undisputed ability to fascinate, seduce and show different realities that change through stories exceeding the limits of time and space.
The word cinéma is the apocope of the French term cinématographe which comes from the ancient Greek kínēma, “movement”, and gráphein, “writing”, and thus means “writing in motion”. Cinema is an art that embraces different forms of expression indispensable to film language: from photography to music, from set design to acting.
Cinema is a means of communication, information and cultural socialization. According to director Éric Rohmer, one of the leading exponents of the Nouvelle Vague, the mission cinema has is to “direct our eyes to the aspects of the world for which we had not yet glanced, rather than being in front of a distorted mirror, albeit of good quality”.
The main objective of film festivals, or film festivals is to broaden your horizons, cultural events that show off new genres and trends and bring great restored classics of cinematic history.
Let’s find out together which are the ten most successful film festivals.
Film Festival: the 10 most important film festivals in the world
Here are the ten film festivals that big-screen fans can not miss:
- Cannes International Film Festival: for over 70 years, it has been the most sought-after event for professionals and film fans. It takes place every year in May at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès for two weeks. In addition to the producers who use the festival to launch their latest films and sell the rights to the various distributors, actors and directors from all over the world are on the catwalks of the prestigious festival. The most important award of the event is the famous Palme d’Or, awarded to the best film. Other prestigious prizes awarded by the festival jury are the Grand Prix, the Prix d’interprétation masculine e féminine, the l’Œil d’Or, the Camèra d’Or and the Queer Palm.
- Venice International Film Festival: housed in the historic Palazzo del Cinema, on the Marconi seafront at the Venice Lido, this festival is the oldest film event in the world after the Oscar: The first edition took place from the 6th to the 21st August 1932. The Golden Lion, inspired by the symbol of the city, the Lion of San Marco, is the prestigious award given to the best film in competition, in addition to, among others, the Silver Lion for best direction, the Grand Prix of the jury and the famous Volpi Cup for the best interpretation both male and female. The festival began in the thirties of the twentieth century from the idea of Giuseppe Volpi, president of the Venice Biennale, the sculptor Antonio Maraini and Luciano De Feo, Secretary-General of the Educational Film Union.
- Berlin International Film Festival: Held every year in February, the Berlin International Film Festival is also known as the Berlinale. Its main venue is the Theater am Potsdamer Platz, which for the eleven days of the festival turns into the Berlinale Palast. Founded in 1951, the Berlin International Film Festival attracts around 500,000 visitors from all over the world every year and hosts over 20,000 professionals from 120 different countries including 4,000 journalists. The main prize of the event is the Goldener Bär, in English the Golden Bear, awarded to the best film. Two other important awards are the Goldener Ehrenbär, or the Golden Bear career, established in 1982 but regularly awarded only since 1993, and the Berlinale Kamera, an award that since 1986 is awarded to figures and film institutions that over the years have made an important contribution to the festival.
4.Toronto International Film Festival: The TIFF is the annual film festival held in Toronto, Canada, for ten days from the Tuesday following Labour Day. Between 300 and 400 films from around 50 different countries are shown in 23 cinemas. The show, founded in 1976, has various categories but does not decree winners and does not provide rankings. According to the US magazine Variety, “the Toronto Festival is the second after Cannes in terms of star presence and economic activity”.
5. Seattle International Film Festival: also known by the acronym SIFF, the festival has been held in Seattle since 1976 and in recent years has lasted 24 days between May and June. SIFF opens its doors to independent films, foreign films and documentaries from more than 85 countries, it believes in the unique power of cinema to share original stories, diverse perspectives and rich emotional journeys. The goal of SIFF is to share different perspectives of visual narration by promoting a more inclusive idea of culture and allowing new voices to tell their story.
6. Sundance Film Festival: Founded in 1978 by the Utah Film Commission, the independent film festival takes place in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, Utah, and until 1991 it was known as the Utah/United States Film Festival. The event is considered one of the main showcases of independent American and international cinema, since 1985 it has become part of the Sundance Institute founded by American actor, director and producer Robert Redfort. The Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization that supports and enhances the work of directors, producers, screenwriters, actors and composers to promote freedom of expression that distinguishes independent cinema.
7. Locarno Film Festival: inaugurated on the 23rd of August 1946, the Swiss event takes place every year in August and has 12 sections, 3 competitions and 25 prizes. The most important award is the Pardo d’Or awarded to the best film in competition. The most interesting feature of the festival is the projection room or Piazza Grande, which houses one of the largest screens in Europe with its 26 meters in length and 14 meters in height. The gigantic open-air cinema can hold an audience of 8,000. The Locarno Film Festival occupies a unique position in the panorama of major film festivals, and every August for eleven days it transforms the central European city into the capital of auteur cinema.
8. British Film Institute London Film Festival: also known as the BFI London Film Festival, is an uncompetitive film festival initiated in 1956 by some film critics. The festival has become a European landmark over time, it’s sponsored by The Times and is held annually under the patronage of the British Film Institute. It has a rich program of events and conferences, and since 2007 it has venues throughout England and Wales, over 300 films participate from more than 60 countries including feature films, short films and documentaries.
9. Tokyo International Film Festival: the first edition of the most important Asian event, held every year in October, dates back to 1985 and was organized in Shibuya, one of the most famous districts of Tokyo. Today, the stage of the event that unites East and West is the elegant and exclusive district of Roppongi. The Tokyo International Film Festival has several sections: international competition, special screenings, World Cinema (premieres of American and European films already successfully presented in international festivals), Winds of Asia, Japanese Eyes (on contemporary Japanese cinema), Nippon Cinema Classics (on the history of Japanese cinema), Cinema Vibration (on the relationship between cinema and music), natural TIFF (film on environmental issues) and animecs TIFF (on animation cinema). The two most important awards given out at the Tokyo International Film Festival are the Grand Prix and the Akira Kurosawa Award.
10. Filming Italy Sardegna Festival: the festival dedicated to cinema and television takes place in the beautiful setting of Forte Village, the award-winning resort surrounded by the beautiful sea of Sardinia and the fragrance of typical Mediterranean nature. The event aims to create a bridge between the world of cinema and television, promoting the encounter between Italian and international entertainment. The event organized in collaboration with APA, DG Cinema Mibac, ANAC, ANICA, ANEC, UCI Cinemas, with the Patronage of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, the Municipality of Cagliari, ANICA and the Consortium Costa Smeralda, also makes use of the partnership with Italy for Movies. The rich program of the festival, now in its third edition, includes world premieres and meetings with the greatest actors and actresses, Italian and foreign, of the small and large screen.
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