Festival 2024
The theme of this year’s festival was Core, a play on words between the English meaning, and the Southern Italian word for Heart. We screened feature movies and shorts addressing critical themes relevant to our San Diego audiences related to the essence of being humans: identity, immigration, youth, workplace, inclusivity, gender, race, religion, and more.
Enjoy a few photos of our 2024 feSta and trailers of screened movies.
Rapito | Kidnapped
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In 1858, in the Jewish quarter of Bologna, the Pope’s soldiers burst into the home of the Mortara family. By order of the cardinal, they have come to take Edgardo, their seven-year-old son. The child had been secretly baptized by his nurse as a baby and the papal law is unquestionable: he must receive a Catholic education. Edgardo’s parents, distraught, will do anything to get their son back. Supported by public opinion and the international Jewish community, the Mortaras’ struggle quickly takes a political dimension. But the Church and the Pope will not agree to return the child, to consolidate an increasingly wavering power...
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Year: 2023
Director: Marco Bellocchio
Screenplay: Marco Bellocchio, Susanna Nicchiarelli, from the book Il caso Mortara by Daniele Scalise
Editing: Francesca Calvelli, Stefano Mariotti
Cinematography: Francesco di Giacomo
Music: Fabio Massimo Capogrosso
Cast: Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi, Enea Sala, Barbara Ronchi, Filippo Timi, Fabrizio Gifuni, Andrea Gherpelli, Samuele Teneggi, Corrado Invernizzi, Paolo Calabresi, Leonardo Maltese, Federica Fracassi, Bruno Cariello, Giustiniano Alpi
Production: IBC Movie, Kavac, Ad Vitam, Match Factory Productions, Rai Cinema, Arte
World Sales: Cohen Media Group
Dieci minuti | Ten Minutes
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Ten minutes can change the course of your day. Ten minutes of doing something completely new can change the course of a life. This is what Bianca will discover in the midst of an existential crisis. New encounters, the discovery of special bonds and listening to those who have always loved us. Sometimes it takes very little to start over and this film teaches us, through a warm and exciting tale of rebirth.
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Year: 2024
Director: Maria Sole Tognazzi
Screenplay: Francesca Archibugi, Maria Sole Tognazzi, from the novel Per 10 minuti by Chiara Gamberale
Editing: Chiara Griziotti
Cinematography: Gigi Martinucci
Music: Andrea Farri
Cast: Barbara Ronchi, Fotinì Peluso, Margherita Buy, Alessandro Tedeschi, Barbara Chichiarelli, Anna Ferruzzo, Marcello Mazzarella, Mattia Garaci, Matteo Cecchi
Production: Vision Distribution, Swallow Wings Films
World Sales: Vision Distribution
Io Capitano
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From writer-director Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah, Dogman) comes an epic odyssey from West Africa to Italy told through the eyes and experiences of two Senegalese cousins, teenagers living in Dakar who yearn for a brighter future in Europe. But in between lies a tense and treacherous journey through myriad checkpoints, across the scorching Saharan desert, inside dank North African prisons, and atop the choppy waters of the Mediterranean Sea, where thousands have died packed inside seafaring vessels barely fit for passage.
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Year: 2023
Director: Matteo Garrone
Screenplay: Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso, Massimo Ceccherini, Andrea Tagliaferri
Editing: Maro Spoletini
Cinematography: Paolo Carnera
Music: Andrea Farri
Cast: Seydou Sarr, Moustapha Fall, Issaka Sawadogo, Hichem Yacoubi, Doodou Sagna, Ndeye Khady Sy, Bamar Kane, Oumar Diaw, Flaure B.B. Kabore
Production: Archimede, Tarantula, Pathé Pictures, Logical Content Ventures, Rai Cinema, Voo - Be.tv, CANAL+, CINÉ+, RTBF, Proximus
World Sales: Cohen Media Group
Kripton
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Kripton investigates the lives of six young people, voluntarily hospitalized in two psychiatric communities on the outskirts of Rome. They struggle with personality disorders and serious states of alteration. Through the story of the daily lives of our protagonists, of the relationships they have with each other, and with the world made up of psychiatrists, professionals and families, the film leads us to explore human subjectivity in depth. The extreme condition of mental disorder becomes the key to approaching the mysterious abyss of our minds and, at the same time, a possible metaphor for our time.
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Year: 2023
DIRECTED BY: Francesco Munzi
Screenplay: Francesco Munzi
Editing: Cristiano Travaglioli
Cinematography: Valerio Azzali
Music: Giuliano Taviani, Carmelo Travia
Cast: Marco Antonio Breccia Fratadocchi, Okoro Chidindu, Georgiana Cristian, Emerson De Rubeis, Dimitri Rossini, Silvia Sgrulloni
Production: Cinemaundici, Rai Cinema
World Sales: Cinemaundici
La chimera
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Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For the band of tombaroli, thieves of ancient grave goods and archaeological wonders, the Chimera means redemption from work and the dream of easy wealth. For Arthur, the Chimera looks like the woman he lost, Beniamina. To find her, Arthur challenges the invisible, searches everywhere, goes inside the earth – in search of the door to the afterlife of which myths speak. In an adventurous journey between the living and the dead, between forests and cities, between celebrations and solitudes, the intertwined destinies of these characters unfold, all in search of the Chimera.
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Year: 2023
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Screenplay: Alice Rohrwacher
Editing: Nelly Quettier
Cinematography: Hélène Louvart
Cast: Josh O'Connor, Carol Duarte, Isabella Rossellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Vincenzo Nemolato, Giuliano Mantovani, Gian Piero Capretto, Melchiorre Pala, Luciano Vergaro, Ramona Fiorini, Luca Gargiullo, Yile Vianello
Production: Tempesta, Ad Vitam, Amka Films Productions, Arte, Rai Cinema
World Sales: Neon
Orlando
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Orlando is an aged musician from a small town in central Italy who lost his wife years ago and now lives alone, playing the accordion at weddings and working the land. Valerio, his only child, left for Brussels soon after his mother’s death, which led Orlando to cut all ties with him. However, when he reaches out to his father to ask for help, Orlando feels he must oblige. For the first time in his life, he leaves the town and travels to Brussels to see Valerio, only to arrive when it is too late. His son is dead, leaving behind a nine-year-old daughter, Lyse. Now, a new life for Orlando awaits…
In Italian with English subtitles.
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Year: 2022
Director: Daniele Vicari
Screenplay: Daniele Vicari, Andrea Cedrola
Editing: Benni Atria
Cinematography: Gherardo Gossi
Music: Teho Teardo
Cast: Michele Placido, Angelica Kazankova, Fabrizio Rongione, Federico Pacifici, Denis Mpunga, Christelle Cornil, Daniela Giordano, Lola Deleuze, Chiara Scalise, François Neycken, Celine Andrè
Production: Rosamont, Tarantula, RAI Cinema
World Sales: Vision Distribution