TORONTO – Coming off the heels of the three largest annual film festivals (Cannes, Venice and Toronto), the Rome Film Festival has had to fluff its feathers a little differently to get noticed, since its inaugural event in 2006. Historically, the main challenge for Rome’s event was in attracting top filmmakers and celebrities, and in creating a large enough media storm to remain relevant – so late in the year. By October, rival programmers have scooped the “most buzzed about” World Premiers and heavy hitters, leaving Rome’s cinephiles and journalists with little left to write home about. 

Cannes and Venice have their extraneous standing ovations, film markets and red-carpet swanking – not to mention Venice being the oldest filmic kermesse in Europe. Toronto’s (TIFF) near two-week cinematic romp is the largest Film Festival in North America, attracting Hollywood’s nonpareils and their stargazers.

So what does Rome’s Festival do differently? According to its Program Director Paola Maranga: “Each festival has a function and in Rome over the years the stars tended to monopolize the attention of the press and public. Our priority now is to contribute to making the films known – without stars you don’t have films, but it is also true that without films you don’t have stars”.

Scheduled for October 16-27, the films, 100 in total, from 48 Countries, are in abundance at the 19th edition of Rome’s Film Fest. The main program sees 18 films in competition, including 3 Italian features – Elisabetta Sgarbi’s “L’isola Degli Idealisti”, Luca Barbareschi’s “Paradiso In Vendita” and Sara Petraglia’s “L’Albero”, a World Premier and a dour portrait of modern day 20-year olds.

Celebrated character-actor and Hollywood icon Johnny Depp is being bestowed with a lifetime achievement award, a grandiose platform to help premier his directorial debut “Modi”, starring Riccardo Scamarcio as the 20th century portrait artist and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani. Francis Ford Coppola will be screening his latest “Megalopolis” in the festival’s pre-opening slot, and also making its Italian Premier – bringing a bit of A-list panache to the Capital’s proceedings. Rome is also hosting a notable career comeback by James Franco whose “Hey Joe” premiers at the festival in the non-competitive Grand Public section, a Claudio Giovannesi (Gommorah TV Series) directed film set in post WWII Naples.

In addition to the entertainment, Rome’s Film Festival is centralized in a public music complex, Parco della Musica, comprised of three concert halls and an outdoor theatre. The main screenings and red carpet happens at the music complex, which was designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano in the 1990s – and at the time of construction was the largest symphonic concert Hall in Europe. The exteriors of the concert halls have been described as “deceptively simple but smart” with “weathered armadillo-like steel shells”, while their interiors are heavy with wood, fabrics, and typical Piano elegance. Not the sort of venue you’d typically expect for a film festival, but certainly a welcomed treat.

What’s most interesting about the site was that when construction began, workers discovered the remains of a suburban Roman villa of over 2,000 square meters – dating back to between the 6th and 2nd century BC. Piano decided to build around it, which meant that future art lovers could take in modern music and cinema on hallowed Roman ground.

Search the Rome Film Festival line-up at: https://www.romacinemafest.it/en/rome-film-fest/

Photo of Red Carpet courtesy of Getty Images; photo of Parco della Musica by Robert Dettman   

Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix