THE MEXICAN DIRECTOR GUILLERMO ARRIAGA GOT THE MOST VALUABLE PRIZE WITH HIS MOVIE
31st Torino Film Festival, that took place from November 22nd to 30th , just wrapped up successfully with a 31% increase at the box office and an excellent audience participation. The festival opened with the screening of “Last Vegas” an American comedy directed by John Turteltaub starring Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas and Morgan Freeman and closed with the thriller “Grand Piano” by Spanish director Eugenio Mira starring Elijah Wood and John Cusak.
The program of 31st TFF included 185 movies divided in various sections: the main competitive one, Torino31 reserved to directors who present their first, second or third film, Festa mobile dedicated to the more popular movies, Onde where public can see films by consolidated directors or experimentations by the young ones, TFF Doc for documentaries, then Torino FilmLab, Spazio Torino, Italian.corti. The retrospective of this edition and even of the next one is devoted to New Hollywood, the new American cinema between 1967-1976 and includes about 80 films. New additions at 31st TFF were Europop dedicated to successful European comedies created by the new festival director Paolo Virzì, After hours and Big bang tv dedicated to high quality tv shows as “House of cards” by David Fincher and “Top of Lake” by Jane Campion.
Official awards were assigned by the international jury composed by Mexican director Guillermo Arriaga, Stephen Amidon, Aida Begić, Francesca Marciano and Jorge Perugorría to: Best Film “Club Sándwich” (Mexico), Special Jury Award “2 automnes 3 hivers” (France), Best Actress Samantha Castillo for her performance in “Pelo Malo” (Venezuela), Best Actor Gabriel Arcand for his performance in “Le démantèlement” (Canada), Best Screenplay “Pelo malo” (Venezuela).
The Audience award went to “La mafia uccide solo d’estate” by Pierfrancesco Diliberto “Pif” (Italy). It is interesting that both the international jury and the audience assigned the award as best Film to a comedy: “Club Sandwich” the story of the delicate relationship between a fifteen-year-old boy and his mother who spend their summer vacation at a seaside hotel and “La mafia uccide solo d’estate” film debut by Italian director “Pif” about life, dreams and hopes of Arturo who lives in Palermo and growing up becomes more aware of the criminal reality that surrounds him.
Certainly one of the trade mark of Torino Film Festival is its loyal audience, who participates eager to see whether movies by little known directors or those by the most famous one.
31st edition of Torino Film Festival closed with outstanding results: full houses, screenings sold out, an enthusiast audience attracted by the excellent quality of the films selected, and a new and passionate director.
Antonella Salvia
