Rome Film Fest, Lifetime Achievement Award to Tarantino and Burton

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21 June 2021 The Rome Film Fest, whose 16th edition will take place from 14 to 24 October, will celebrate Tim Burton and Quentin Tarantino with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

On that occasion, Burton will be the protagonist of a "Close Encounter" with the public during which he will retrace the main stages of his artistic career: since the second half of the 1980s, the filmmaker has been considered one of the most original authors on the scene. American, able to bring an immediately recognizable visual universe to the big screen. From "Batman" to "Edward Scissorhands", from "Ed Wood" to "The Corpse Bride", from "Big Fish" to "Sweeney Todd", from "Frankenweenie" to "Dumbo", Burton immerses the viewer in a a world made up of dark atmospheres, sometimes gothic, populated by extravagant and solitary figures, often condemned to live in a sort of irrecoverable abnormality.

"It is really special for me - says Burton - to receive this recognition from the Rome Film Fest. Federico Fellini, Mario Bava and Dario Argento have been important sources of inspiration in my life. To collect this award in Rome, a place I love, a city that makes you feel the protagonist of your own film is very exciting for me ".

The Film Fest will also celebrate the work of Quentin Tarantino with the Lifetime Achievement Award and with a "Close Encounter" which will see him talk to the audience of the Festival. "There was a moment in my life - says Tarantino - when I watched any Italian film. And I dedicated the best years of my career to making my version of these films. For these reasons, receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Festa del Cinema di Roma is fantastic (in Italian in the English text, ed)! ".

The retrospective of the sixteenth edition of the Festival, curated by Mario Sesti, will be dedicated to Arthur Penn, one of the most loved and representative authors in the history of cinema. As every year, the artistic director Antonio Monda, the members of the selection committee and the retrospectives manager will share with the public a brief review of works that have marked their passion for cinema: after the western, the musical, the noir, the screwball comedy and science fiction, in 2021 the selection will take place among the "guilty pleasures", that is to say those "light" or not completely successful film products but considered, at the same time, absolutely irresistible.

The sixteenth edition of the Festival will take place as usual at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, involving, as every year, numerous other places in the capital. The full program will be announced at a press conference on Wednesday 6 October.

Sacrificed in the last edition to the anti Covid rules, with a very small number of the public admitted only in the cavea area, with a view from above on the stars, the red carpet in October should (the conditional is a must) return to center stage at 'Rome Auditorium, together with the Village and the food area, for the Film Festival. Dominated by masks, distances, sanitizations, reservations, registrations and a shortened time in the run-up to the curfew, the festival was the last Roman event before the closures due to the second wave of the pandemic.

This year the goal is to return to normal, even if the area dedicated to the Festival will have to undergo changes because in October the Auditorium will still host the vaccination hub. At the moment. With regard to the public admitted, we remain, as a protocol, on the numbers of last year, with the hope that a possible herd immunity in September could change things. The artistic director of the Festa Antonio Monda, Laura Delli Colli and Francesca Via, respectively president and general manager of the Cinema Foundation for Rome, explained this in the press conference dedicated to the anticipations of the kermesse.

The sixteenth edition can count on a budget of 4 million euros, a sum that exceeds that of last year, equal to 3.5 million and close to that of 2019 (4 and a half million) "We work to have the party 100 per one hundred in presence. Digital is not worth any initiative made in presence, the party wants sharing ", explained Monda, explaining that there will still be a platform where some films can be seen online. As for the public armed with smartphones beyond the red carpet barriers, the ingredient that makes the festival air breathe, we will know something more precise close to the event.

"There will be more international guests, the village and the food area will be reintroduced inside the Auditorium. We hope to be able to increase attendance in the halls, even if for now we are calibrating on the number of the last edition", announced Francesca Via . In addition, he continued, "we have changed the ticket booking system. We have chosen the same one used by the Venice Film Festival, 'Boxol', in order not to have the difficulties with the previous one". Whether it is truly a "free festival for all" will be announced during the press conference on 6 October. Meanwhile, as regards the red carpet, the entire upper area of ​​the Cavea will certainly be open so that the public can see who passes by.