11 year of the Central European Festival MittelCinemaFest in the Czech Republic
MittelCinemaFest, the Central European festival of contemporary Italian cinematography, is taking place in the Czech Republic for the eleventh time from November 30 to December 6 in the large hall of the Lucerna cinema. The festival presents nine films, including interesting premieres shown at the Venice festival this September, as well as films recently shown in Italian cinemas with considerable audience response. As in previous years of the festival, a section will be dedicated to some of the great masters of Italian art, such as Borromini, Bernini and Caravaggio.
The Ambassador Mauro Marsili underlined the interconnectedness of the Italian system, as the initiative is realized through the cooperation of Cinecittà with Italian embassies and Italian cultural institutes in the Central European area (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) and thanks to the support of the Italian-Czech Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Lucerna cinema, distribution companies, various Italian business groups operating in the country and many media partners. "Our heartfelt thanks goes to everyone who contributed to the realization of this event," added the ambassador, "I hope that MittelCinemaFest will continue to grow this year and please the audience with the best the Italian cinema has to offer." According to the director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague Vito De Bellis, "Italian cinematography always offers great emotions. In addition, the films shown this year have an exceptional cast, demonstrating the enormous value of actors who are already well known to local audiences: as Toni Servillo, Valerio Mastrandrea, Alba Rohrwacher and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, as well as Paola Cortellesi and others.”
The festival will open on Thursday, November 30 at 18:30 with the film An Endless Sunday with the participation of director Alain Parroni. On December 1, Pietro Castellitto's Enea is on the program at 6:30 p.m. and Paola Cortellesi's There's Still Tomorrow (C'è ancora domani) at 8:45 p.m. On Saturday, December 2, they are followed by Caravaggio’s Shadow directed by Michele Placid at 6:30 p.m. and I Told You Say by Ginevra Elkann at 8:45 p.m. On Sunday, May 3, we continue at 6:30 p.m. with Borromini and Bernini - The Challenge to Perfection directed by Giovanni Troilo, and Mimì – The Prince of Darkness by Brando de Sica will be screened on December 4 at 6:30 p.m. On Tuesday, December 5 at 6:30 p.m., Simone Massi's film Nowhere (Invelle) is on the program, and the festival will close on December 6 at 6:30 p.m. with Paolo Genovese's film The First Day of My Life (Il primo giorno della mia vita). All films will be screened in their original version with Czech and English subtitles. Tickets can be purchased online (https://www.kinolucerna.cz/klient-263/kino-68/stranka-2243) or at the Lucerna cinema box office.
The festival is organized by the Embassy of Italy in Prague, the Italian Cultural Institute, Cinecittà and the Lucerna cinema in cooperation with the Italian-Czech Chamber of Commerce and Industry, with the support of the capital city of Prague.
Media partners: La Pagina, Progetto Repubblica Ceca, Radio 1, ČSFD - Czech-Slovak film database, Echo 24 and expats.cz.
More information on the website of the festival (https://www.mittelcinemafest.cz/it/uvod) or on the homepage of the Italian Cultural Institute (https://iicpraga.esteri.it/it/