Anna Magnani smiles from the official poster of the 18th Rome Film Festival, which opens today at the Auditorium Parco della Musica "Ennio Morricone." Under the artistic direction of Paola Malanga and the leadership of Gian Luca Farinelli, the festival has grown into far more than a competition. It spans multiple venues across the city—from the MAXXI to the Teatro Palladium—and will feature exhibitions, music, conferences, and a wide array of non-competitive sections alongside the main race.
The "Freestyle" section welcomes films of any format and style, from series to music videos, from narrative to video art. "Grand Public" showcases mainstream cinema. "Special Screenings" focuses on curated selections. "Best of 2023" brings acclaimed work from other international festivals. "Cinema History" restores masterpieces to their original splendor and pays tribute to giants of Italian and world cinema. Two additional sections, "Paso Doble" and "Absolute Beginners," offer conversations between filmmakers and retrospectives on directorial debuts. Running alongside the festival, "Alice in the City" will program its own selection of films for young audiences.
Among the most anticipated films are There's Still Tomorrow, directed by and starring Paola Cortellesi as a tribute to Anna Magnani, who died fifty years ago and now graces the festival poster; My Hair Hurts, directed by Roberta Torre and dedicated to Monica Vitti, starring Alba Rohrwacher; and Volare, a directorial debut by Margherita Buy about an actress who fears flying. The program also includes documentaries, television series, career retrospectives (Isabella Rossellini and Shigeru Umebayashi), and essential auteurs from Hayao Miyazaki to Justine Triet. Over 130 films in all, for every taste.
What stands out is the strong presence of cinema grappling with disability and fragility. Several films explore what it means to confront a world indifferent to difference, to be labeled "strange" or "abnormal," and to navigate the gravity of care. It is no small thing that cinema has begun to dismantle taboos and uproot prejudice with such consistency. Here, then, are some titles worth marking in your program.
Kripton, directed by Francesco Munzi, Italy, 2023, 107 minutes (Special Screenings). Shot inside two psychiatric facilities on the outskirts of Rome, this documentary draws close to young people living with fragility. Six young adults have voluntarily admitted themselves and are struggling with various disorders. After his earlier film Futura explored the hopes and fears of young people broadly, Munzi turns his camera inward, capturing the daily lives of these six, the bonds they form, their singular voices and struggles. Through meticulous, shared observation, their perspectives emerge—their extreme condition transformed by cinema into a possible metaphor for our time. (Read the full review by Claudio Cinus)
Death is a Problem for the Living, directed by Teemu Nikki, Finland/Italy, 2023, 97 minutes (Competition). Black suits, sharp shoes, slicked-back hair—Risto and Arto are neighbors-turned-friends who drive a hearse, "that solid, old Volvo where you can still smoke," ferrying eccentric corpses across the Finnish landscape. Risto is a gambling addict; Arto is missing a large part of his brain. One loves jazz, the other loves 1980s Finnish rock. Both have wrecked lives. Somewhere between Kaurismaki and early Refn, Nikki's new film is a laconic, blood-soaked buddy comedy—cinema that finds grace in ruin.
Jules, directed by Marc Turtletaub, United States, 2023, 87 minutes (Grand Public). One night around 1 a.m. in rural Pennsylvania, a small spacecraft lands in the backyard of Milton, an elderly widower—mild-mannered, solitary, set in his ways. Out steps a diminutive, bluish extraterrestrial. Milton brings him inside, feeds him (water and apples), and names him Jules. What follows is a surreal encounter between a taciturn alien desperate to repair his ship and three older adults—Milton and two eccentric neighbors—who rename him Gary and gift him vintage T-shirts. Ben Kingsley leads the cast in this story of provincial solitude, connection across difference, and unexpected vitality rekindled. Stunt performer Jade Quon plays Jules.
From a Cold Tower High, directed by Francesco Frangipane, Italy, 2023, 90 minutes (Grand Public, Debut Feature). The parlor game asks a terrible question: Who would you throw from the tower? It becomes unbearable when the answer matters—when it means choosing which parent to sacrifice. Elena and Antonio's parents both carry a rare disease, unknown to them. Only one can be cured and saved; the children must decide who will die. Based on Filippo Gili's 2015 play (co-written for the screen), this is the second chapter of the "Midnight Trilogy." Six characters—a family and two doctors—face an agonizing decision.
On October 30, the festival will screen the opening episode of All the Light We Cannot See with audio description and Italian subtitles for people with sensory disabilities. The groundbreaking four-part series, arriving on Netflix November 2, is adapted from Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and directed by Shawn Levy (The Adam Project, Stranger Things), with screenplay by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders). The cast includes Aria Mia Loberti, Nell Sutton, Mark Ruffalo, and Hugh Laurie. At the center is Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind French girl whose courage and hope stand as a counterweight to the violence and destruction of war. Marie-Laure is played by breakthrough actresses Aria Mia Loberti (discovered by Levy in a global casting that specifically included blind and low-vision actors) and Nell Sutton. A festival worth celebrating.