Claudia Cardinale hosts the 30th edition of the "Festival du cinéma italien d'Annecy" (Annecy ½ûÂþÌìÌà Film Festival), dedicated this year to Luchino Visconti.
From the 3rd to the 9th of October, the festival will showcase contemporary ½ûÂþÌìÌà films from the Taviani brothers, Daniele Ciprì, Marco Tullio Giordana, and Daniele Vicari, who will receive the festival's Sergio Leone prize for lifetime achievement.
An open-air photography exhibit honouring Visconti's work, in collaboration with the Turin National Cinema Museum, will occupy the central courtyard of the main villa throughout the festival, and Visconti's landmark film Sandra, Golden-Lion-winner at the 1965 Venice Film Festival will screen as a special presentation.
To celebrate the festival's 30th anniversary, a retrospective beginning with Maurizio Nichetti's 1983 Ratataplan will showcase twenty-two films that have appeared in the festival during its tenure, including works by Marco Tullio Giordana, Paolo Sorrentino and Ettore Scola.
The concurrent regional cinema retrospective will feature eleven films from 1954 to today showcasing the Veneto.
Eight new fiction films and eight documentaries are in competition for jury prizes, and the festival will also award a public prize and the international jury CICAE Pierre Todeschini prize, named after one of the founders of the festival.
