Six documentaries, four features, six shorts, and five comedies have been selected from over 3,100 films submitted from 117 countries
The second edition of the Migranti Film Festival will take place in Pollenzo, Italy, from June 1 to 4, 2018. The festival, which is dedicated to migratory phenomena, bringing people together, and migrant self-awareness, has attracted an incredibly high number of submissions this year, with filmmakers from 117 countries sending in a total of 3,121 films for consideration.
This edition will bring out positivity, focusing on the self-awareness of migrants, the search for authentic interactions, the pleasures of being together, and the importance of approaches based on listening and care for others. The films will tell stories of recovery, of creativity as salvation, of migrants’ food, and of their countries of origin. New this year is a section dedicated to comedies, offering smiles but also reflection.
The Migranti Film Festival will also be enriched by important national and international collaborations: the Seattle International Film Festival, the International Environmental Film Festival in Buenos Aires, the Greenwich International Film Festival in New York, and the Sudestival in Monopoli, Italy.
Movies in competition come from Ethiopia, France, Germany, Iran, Israel, Italy, Senegal, Turkey, the UK, the US, and Venezuela.
The program of the festival includes screenings of the documentaries and films in and out of competition, workshops on world food and drink, four kitchens run by migrant communities from different countries (Dominican Republic, India, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, Romania, and Senegal) serving their traditional dishes every day, performances, children’s activities, interactive exhibitions, and much more.
One of the festival’s key aims is to give space to younger generations, and to this end the jury for the Shorts section will be composed of local high school students. The jury for the Features and Documentaries sections will be made up of notable Italian figures from culture and film: writer and journalist Stefania Barzini, actor Giuseppe Cederna, television writer Carlo Freccero, film critic Enrico Magrelli, actor and director Angelo Orlando, La Stampa journalist Francesca Paci, and journalist Valentina Parasecolo. The winner of the Comedies section will be determined by the audiences at the screenings.
The film festival, directed by Dario Leone, is organized by the University of Gastronomic Sciences in collaboration with Slow Food, the City of Bra, and the ASBARL association, and is part of MIBACT’s MigrArti project.