Ischia Film Festival Celebrates Location of Francesco Munzi's "Black Souls"

The Ionic Sea along the town of Africo (Photo by Actor, Stefano Priolo of Black Souls)

Out of the 109 films selected for the festival, 54 will be enjoying their national premieres, 2 their international premieres and 2 their European premieres. 42 are Italian productions or co-productions, and the competition will feature 40 films, including feature films, documentaries and short films, which will battle it out for the festival’s awards.

From 27 June to 4 July 2015, the 13th edition of the Ischia Film Festival will be held at the Aragonese Castle in Ischia. It is the only international competition dedicated to cinematographic locations that gives artistic recognition to audiovisual works, directors, directors of cinematography and set designers that endorse Italian and international locations, putting the emphasis on the landscape and cultural identity.

Out of the 109 films selected for the festival, 54 will be enjoying their national premieres, 2 their international premieres and 2 their European premieres. 42 are Italian productions or co-productions, and the competition will feature 40 films, including feature films, documentaries and short films, which will battle it out for the festival’s awards.

The festival awarded the multi-award-winning writer of Black Souls, Francesco Munzi (who won 9 David di Donatello awards including for Best Film and Best Director) the Ischia Film Award 2015, naming him Best Director of the year. The award, which has previously been given to illustrious people from the world of film such as the French director Benoit Jacquot and the Oscar-winning Bille August, will be awarded on 29 June.

As a way of promoting the land through audiovisuals in collaboration with independent festivals, the Ischia Film Festival will once again be showcasing films set on the Baltic Coast this year. In collaboration with the biggest promoter of films from Northern Europe, the Nordische Filmtage Lübeck, for the fourth year running some of the biggest cinematographic works of 2014 (none of which were released in Italy) that place greatest emphasis on the cultural identity of the countries of Northern Europe will be screened.

Opening the focus will be Norwegian director Jan Vardøen with the Italian premiere of Heart of Lightness, which is based on the piece of theatre by Henrik Ibsen. The focus will feature other important films such as the Swedish film Och Piccadilly Circus ligger inte i Kumla by director Bengt Danneborn, the Finnish documentary Joka muistaa vähän enempi by Minna Valjane, the Latvian documentary Pelican in the desert by Viesturs Kairišs and a film set in the Faroe Islands, Ludo, by Katrin Ottarsdóttir, who will be attending the festival with his producer Hugin Eide.

On 2 July the Ischia Film Festival will be hosting the Bari branch of Creative Europe Desk Media for an info day on the MEDIA sub-programme of Europa Creativa.

-Written by Camillo De Marco for Cineuropa

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