From the homage to Nino Manfredi to the first film competition on Twitch: the live and online festival will be an immersive experience, always keeping the bar high on the showcase of international stars and including a tribute to experimental cinema.
The 2021 edition of the Lucca Film Festival and Europa Cinema – taking place from October 1st to 10th in Lucca – will be an immersive event among the leading ones organized and supported by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio of Lucca.
This festival, presented in a hybrid form, will have a program full of screenings, digital meetings, and live events such as Effetto Cinema Notte, which over the years has involved the city with unique and original performance programs, however always observing safety regulations in the ways that will be announced in September.
Among the showcased tributes of the festival is the one to Nino Manfredi on the 100th anniversary of his birth with a selection of his films, a dedicated exhibition, and guests from his “cinema”. Manfredi, with more than one hundred films, about forty television appearances, three directions, twelve screenplays, and countless theater performances, has played the unforgettable role of Geppetto, the unlawful seller on trains, the bartender of Ceccano, the emigrant, the commissioner, the underclassman. “Saturnino Manfredi, in art Nino, was this and much more –the organizers of the festival affirm – a versatile actor who has left us a rich legacy of masterful interpretations”.
“An edition that we can’t help but dedicate to Marcello Petrozziello, coordinator of the Press Office and External Relations of the Foundation who has recently passed away –Marcello Bertocchini, President of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca said – and deeply loved Italian cinema. The tribute to Nino Manfredi is a symbol of restart, since he was a multifaceted actor who told the story of common people in Italy in all its greatness, dramas and revenge”.
The “crossmediality” characterizing the festival brings the audience into a virtual world through a unique offer in Italy: the first edition of Every Screen tv, a film contest within the streaming platform Twitch, created and promoted together with the platform www.multiplayer.it.
The festival will tell the story of the career of international stars with a cinematic tribute (screenings) and with the traditional masterclass, a special moment connecting the audience with the participating stars. The program will be enlivened by the International Competitions (feature films and short films), presented as Italian premieres to “discover the new talents of cinema”, for which the registrations are now open. The films selected for the feature film competition will be 12 and will compete for the awarding of three prizes (Best feature film by international juries – 3,000 euros; students and people’s choice juries both live and online), while the historic short films competition in its sixteenth edition will offer a cash prize for the winning work worth 500 euros.
Out of competition previews are also programmed (films for the general public – accompanied by the protagonists – which will then be released in cinemas throughout Italy); the section Arte with themed exhibitions and performance events with Effetto Cinema Notte, which will be the section animating the red carpet during the festival. The rich program also includes the section Educational dedicated to schools, thanks to the announcement of MIUR (Ministry of Education, University and Research) “Cinema per la Scuola – Buone Pratiche, Rassegne e Festival” (Cinema for School – Best Practices, Expositions and Festivals). The new projects will involve the classes of the territory according to a purposefully organized schedule including events in web conferencing and in person. The events will involve not only the screening of films but also presentations and masterclasses held by the guests of the festival.
Among the synergistic collaborations on the territory is the one with Lucca 48, a film festival where participants will be required to make a short film in 48 hours and the winners will be screened during the festival on the last day; and the sixth edition of Over The Real, the international video art festival, which presents the most significant lines of research that have emerged in recent years in the international scene of audiovisual arts.
Join the Festival wherever you are! Many live streaming with our guests, ranging from cinema masterclasses to interviews with the artists, will take place daily. Lucca Film Festival e Europa Cinema 2021’s entire schedule will be broadcasted live, with free access wherever you are.
Check out the entire schedule of the in-room and online projections, and of the meetings in the dedicated webpage.
The main protagonists of the extensive schedule of the Festival will be the International Competitions (12 feature films and more than 20 short films), Italian premieres “to discover new cinema talents”. Films will be available thanks to an on-demand system, with a free access for the entire duration of the Festival, courtesy of two platforms: “My.Movies.com”, in the virtual room “Più Compagnia” (Feature Film Competition – available in Italy), and the international platform “Festival Scope” (Short Film Competition – worldwide). Check out the dedicated page “Digital Screenings” to discover all the films in competition.
