N.I.C.E. USA 2021
31th EDITION New York, November 12th – 20th
Philadelphia, December 6th – 12th
Streaming on eventive.org*
New York, November 2021: N.I.C.E. -New Italian Cinema Events – is a cultural organization founded by Viviana Del Bianco in Florence. Its primary goal is to promote contemporary independent Italian cinema worldwide through film screenings and cultural events in Europa, United States and Russia. This year N.I.C.E. Festival gets to the usual rendez-vous of November into an innovative and renewed formula, which intends to build on the trials launched during the pandemic. From the 31st edition, in addition to long-standing partnerships with Sudestival of Monopoli, Festival dei Popoli, Extra Doc Festival (Maxxi-Roma), Cospe ONLUS, N.I.C.E. established a new collaboration with Cineteca of Bologna, CinematograFica, Cinema for gender equality in development. The spirit that unites N.I.C.E. Festival and CinematograFica enables us to deepen, to grow, and to be stronger in promoting mutual contents, reducing the gap by means of films and targeted meetings.
“Year by year the Festival has established itself as a place designated for the support of independent fiction cinema, first and second works and, since 2000, of documentaries and short films too. Furthermore, it pursues a research project on Cinema history through retrospectives that, over the years, keep on fueling the proposal for a research-based and militant cultural commitment Cinema, expressed through specific sections of the program and the presence of the authors” said Viviana Del Bianco, artistic director of N.I.C.E.
Screenings and online talks are organized in collaboration with N.I.C.E.’s long-time partners: Casa Italiana Zerilli- Marimò NYU, Italian Cultural Institute New York, Consulate General of Italy, Princeton University – Department of French and Italian, Penn Cinema Studies – University of Pennsylvania and Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem.
It is a festival made of people, reflections, exchanges, closer looks at cinema and, above all, made of meetings. N.I.C.E. Festival lists different works by inspiration, issues, idioms and techniques: from docufiction to reportage, works of great artistic value and emotional impact.
Aiming to present different aspects of the contemporary Italian spirit and on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death, there will be two special screenings restored by Cineteca of Bologna, as well as a section dedicated to Cinema and Music with music-themed feature films, since Italian music and cinema have historically followed a parallel path. In line with the same spirit of innovation of the festival, we also present to you an experimental trilogy based upon the performance philosophy. Films will be free and available at this link, 24 hours, every day, from November 12th to November 20st, in the New York metropolitan area.
Program:
Feature Films:
Magari (If Only), 2019, directed by by Ginevra Elkann Alma, Jean and Sebastiano, sons of divorced parents, live in Paris in the bourgeois and strange world of their mum. They arrive in Rome to stay with Carlo, their absent italian father who is a nonconforming man, not capable to take care of himself.
Glassboy, 2020, directed by Samuele Rossi Pino is a child animated by an unbridled desire for freedom and boundless courage . He starts his journey into life, with the willingness to demonstrate that he also can live like all the other kids.
Fortezza (Fortress), 2019, directed by Ludovica Andò e Emiliano Aiello Easy Living, 2019, directed by Orso Miyakawa and Peter Miyakawa A fourteen-year-old kid, a young woman who smuggled medicines up and down the Italian border with France and a bizarre American tennis teacher who dreams of being a painter.
Anja – Real Love Girl, 2020, directed by Paolo Martini e Pablo Benedetti Andrej is a worker of a water bottling company. His life is punctuated by a suffocating everyday routine, which breaks in the moment he loses his job.
Documentaries:
Un uomo deve essere forte (A man must be strong), 2019, directed by Ilaria Ciavattini, Elsi Perino El número nueve – Gabriel Omar Batistuta, 2019, directed by Pablo Benedetti Looking For Negroni, 2021, directed by Federico Micali.
Shorts:
In Her Shoes, 2019, directed by Maria Iovine An upside-down world where women are in power and men look after the family. Domenico retells his story to his daughter starting with a tender memory.
Dipende tutto da te, (The Rider), 2021, directed by Daniele Ceccarini A single young man living alone with his child suddenly loses his job and as consequence he has to change his life reinventing himself as a rider for a food delivery company.
Mi Piace Spider man… e allora? 2021, directed by Federico Micali Cloe is a six years old girl with a great passion: Spiderman! For her first school day she chooses the schoolbag of her favourite superhero. Special Screenings: Dante,
L’Inferno, 1911, directed by Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, Giuseppe De Liguoro (Restored by Cineteca di Bologna-Cinema ritrovato) Inside the Dark Forest Dante meets Virgilio. Together they start a journey through the circles of hell. Inside the circle of Malebolge he meets vary famous characters of the poem: Minosse, Farinata degli Uberti, Pier della Vigna. Dante nella vita e nei tempi suoi, 1922, directed by Domenico Gaido (Restored by Cineteca di Bologna-Cinema ritrovato) In this movie, Dante finds himself in the middle of a political entanglement and of the love story between Segna de’ Calligai and Coronella, a nun who was kidnapped from the monastery.
Trilogia Cinematografica “Trascendenze” (Cinematographic Trilogy “Transcendent”), 2014, directed by Egidio Carbone Lucifero Neapolitan playwright and director invented the theory of the “Constitutive actor”, an artistic experimentation on the scenographic play.
Online Events and Webinar:
Wednesday, November 17th, 5pm Alison Cornish, Professor and Chair of Italian Studies, The Dante Society of America, President New York University in conversation with Gian Luca Farinelli, Director of Cineteca of Bologna and Director Peter Lucas, moderated by Director of Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Stefano Albertini.
Thursday, November 18th, 5pm Pablo Benedetti, Director, of El numero Nueve: Gabriel Omar Batistuta (Italy, 2019), in conversation with Andrea Fiano, Editor of Global Finance Magazine, moderated by Julian Sachs.
Please check the website of Casa Italiana for updates and links to the events. The complete program of festival screenings and events is available at www.nicefestival.org Press Inquiries: Anna Battaglini moc.duolci@inilgittab.annA Follow Us: www.nicefestival.org Facebook: N.I.C.E. FESTIVAL Instagram: @newitaliancinemaevents Twitter: @NICEFilmFest
