The thirteenth edition of Bif&st-Bari International Film&Tv Festival – placed under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic, with the recognition and patronage of the Cinema and Audiovisual Directorate General of the Ministry of Culture, is promoted and financed by the Puglia Region and the Apulia Film Commission Foundation with the collaboration of the City of Bari, of Confindustria and ANCE Bari and BAT, of Puglia Promotion and of Bcc Bari, with the patronage of the Audiovisual Producers Association (APA).

Bif&st 2022 will take place from Saturday March 26 to Saturday April 2 2022 in the Petruzzelli, Piccinni, Kursaal and Margherita Theaters with a pre-opening on March 25 at the Kursaal, as already happened in 2021 with the screening of the documentary film Ennio by Giuseppe Tornatore.

Felice Laudadio is creator and director of Bif&st, and filmmakers Ettore Scola and Margarethe von Trotta are honorary presidents. Film critic Enrico Magrelli is the consultant for the artistic direction, Marco Spagnoli the consultant for fiction TV, Giuliana La Volpe the programmer, Angelo Ceglie the organizational director, Cristina Piscitelli the Head project manager.

Sponsors of Bif&st are: Confindustria and ANCE Bari and BAT, Puglia Promotion. Banca di credito cooperativo di Bari (Bcc Bari) is a new sponsor from this edition.

Regular technical sponsors of Bif&st are: Aeroporti di Puglia, Gruppo Marino/Automobili; Monile and MarioMossa Jeweler who create in platinum the profile of Federico Fellini designed by Ettore Scola for the “Federico Fellini Platinum Award for Cinematic Excellence” (the Fellini Award, the only one recognized by the great director’s family).

Media partners of Bif&st are: Rai (main media partner), Corriere della Sera / Corriere del Mezzogiorno, La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, La Repubblica/Bari.

For its strategic objectives of cultural policy, Bif&st 2022 will collaborate with major institutions and broadcasters such as: Rai Cinema, Rai Fiction, Mediaset, BETA Film, Cinecittà spa, CSC – National Film Archive, University and Polytechnic University of Bari.

Program

Pre-opening of Bif&st – Teatro Kursaal, March 25

On March 25 there will be a pre-opening evening in Teatro Kursaal with a Tribute to Gianni Minà presenting the world premiere of the film GIANNI MINÀ UNA VITA DA GIORNALISTA by Loredana Macchietti. The Bif&st Lifetime Achievement Award will be conferred to the great reporter.

International Premieres – Teatro Petruzzelli

Eight films selected from the most recent world production, including a TV work, and totally unreleased in Italy, will be presented in the non-competitive evening section of the International Premieres in Teatro Petruzzelli. Before the screenings, the Italian cinema awards will be conferred to the winners. These are the films on the program:

• HILL OF VISION by Roberto Faenza, Italy-Usa 2022, world premiere

The film is based on the life of Mario Capecchi, 2007 Nobel Prize in Medicine, born in Italy of an American mother, poet and political activist, arrested by fascists in 1941 and then interned in a German concentration camp.

• OPERATION MINCEMEAT by John Madden, UK-USA 2022

Hoping to change the course of World War II, and save tens of thousands of lives, two intelligence officers plot to break Hitler’s deadly grip on Europe by recruiting the most unlikely of secret agents: a dead man.

• LA FORTUNA by Alejandro Amenábar, Spain 2021

Stanley Tucci is the main character of the first TV series created by Alejandro Amenábar, film director of The Others, The Sea Inside and Open Your Eyes.

• VOUS NE DÉSIREZ QUE MOI by Claire Simon, France 2021

Claire Simon analyzes the peculiar relationship between Marguerite Duras and Yann Andréa, through a tense performing duel by two wonderful actors Swann Arlaud and Emmanuelle Devos.

• FRESH by Mimi Cave, USA 2022

Noa meets the alluring Steve at a grocery store and – given her frustration with dating apps – takes a chance and gives him her number. After their first date, Noa is smitten and accepts Steve’s invitation to a romantic weekend getaway. Only to find that her new paramour has been hiding some unusual appetites.

• GOLIATH by Frédéric Tellier, France 2022

The desperate act of a farmer upsets three intertwined destinies: France, sports teacher by day, activist by night; Patrick, a solitary Parisian lawyer specializing in environmental law; Mathias, man in a hurry in charge of lobbies.

• THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY by Lee Daniels, USA 2021

The intense life of singer Billie Holiday, wonderfully played by Andra Day, Oscar nominee. The film focuses on the decision of the Federal Department of Narcotics Holiday to target the artist. A Federal agent chases her, and she will have a tumultuous affair with him.

• The eighth film of the program will be announced soon.

International Panorama – Teatro Petruzzelli and Teatro Piccinni

12 films from all over the world will be presented in competition in the Petruzzelli – in the afternoon screenings and in Italian or international premieres, and with reruns in the Piccinni. The international jury – chaired by director and screenwriter Giuseppe Piccioni and composed of actress Valeria Cavalli, film critics Kristína Kúdelová and Grażyna Torbicka, director and screenwriter Pif (Pierfrancesco Diliberto) – will confer the following three awards: Bif&st international award for the best director – Bif&st international award for best leading actress – Bif&st international award for best leading actor. These are the selected films:

• LIEBER THOMAS by Andrea Kleinert, Germany 2021
• ALI & AVA by Clio Barnard, UK 2021
• LA HIJA by Manuel Martin Cuenca, Spain 2021
• SETTEMBRE by Giulia Louise Steigerwalt, Italy 2022, world premiere
• WOLKA by Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson, Iceland-Poland 2021
• DAS HAUS by Rick Ostermann, Germany 2021
• VETRO by Domenico Croce, Italy 2022, world premiere
• KERR by Tayfun Pirselimoglu, Turkey-Greece-France 2021
• LAS CONSECUENCIAS by Claudia Pinto Emperador, Spain-Netherlands-Belgium 2021
• TAPIRULÀN by Claudia Gerini, Italy 2022, world premiere
• 9 by Martín Barrenechea, Nicolás Branca, Uruguay-Argentina 2021
• UND MORGEN SEID IHR TOT by Michael Steiner, Switzerland-Germany 2021.

Italian Cinema Awards – Meetings – Teatro Petruzzelli and Teatro Piccinni

The artistic direction of Bif&st – with the collaboration of prestigious film critics – has awarded the following 8 awards to the Italian feature films selected from among all those distributed in cinemas or shown in international or national festivals in the period between September 2021 and February 2022. All the awards will be conferred- redistributed in the eight evenings of Bif&st (on the dates indicated in brackets) – in the presence of the winners who in the morning will hold a meeting in Teatro Petruzzelli at the end of the screening of the film for which they were awarded, except for Gassmann who will be in Teatro Piccinni in the morning of March 26 around 11. These are the awards, which have been already announced to press and audience:

• Furio Scarpelli Award for Best Screenplay: Maurizio De Giovanni, Alessandro Gassmann, Andrea Ozza for Il silenzio grande by Alessandro Gassmann (March 26)
• Alida Valli Award for Best Supporting Actress: Margherita Buy for Tre piani by Nanni Moretti (award ceremony on March 26, Meeting on the 27th). Also the “Federico Fellini Award for Cinematic Excellence” will be awarded to the great actress, since she was unable to collect it in the last edition of Bif&st.
• Ennio Morricone Award for the best composer: Nicola Piovani for I Fratelli De Filippo by Sergio Rubini (March 28)
• Franco Cristaldi Award for Best Producer: Donatella Palermo for Leonora addio by Paolo Taviani (March 29)
• Alberto Sordi Award for Best Supporting Actor: Fabrizio Ferracane for Una femmina by Francesco Costabile (March 30)
• Anna Magnani Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role: Miriam Leone for Diabolik by Manetti Bros. (March 31)
• Vittorio Gassman Award for Best Actor: Vinicio Marchioni for Ghiaccio by Fabrizio Moro and Alessio De Leonardis (April 1st)
• Mario Monicelli Award for best director: Giuseppe Tornatore for his film Ennio (April 2).

The jury of critics also awarded the

• Mariangela Melato Award for the revelation actress to: Lina Siciliano for Una femmina by Francesco Costabile (March 30).

Special Events – Teatro Petruzzelli and Teatro Piccinni

Like every year, Bif&st will present some Special Events:

• L’AMORE PROBABILMENTE by Giuseppe Bertolucci, Italy-Switzerland 2001, 10 years after the death of the film director, who will be remembered by Sonia Bergamasco and Fabrizio Gifuni on April 2 in Teatro Petruzzelli
• L’OMBRA DEL GIORNO by Giuseppe Piccioni, Italy-France 2022
• L’ONDA LUNGA. Storia extra-ordinaria di un’associazione by Francesco Ranieri Martinotti, Italy 2022
• SOROS by Jesse Dylan, USA 2020
• BELLA CIAO by Giulia Giapponesi, Italy-France 2022, w.p.
• THE STORY OF FILM: A NEW GENERATION by Mark Cousins, UK 2021
• STANLEYANDUS – THE PINOCCHIO PROJECT by Mauro Di Flaviano, Federico Greco, Stefano Landini, France 2022
• MARIANO RIGILLO E LA SUA FAMIGLIA TEATRALE ALLARGATA ALL’”ANTICA ITALIANA” by Gigliola Funaro, Italy 2021
• NOTTI BIONDE, L’EL DORADO DEL CONTRABBANDO by Vito Caggianelli, Italy 2022, w.p.
• KINDESWHOLE – IL BENE DEL BAMBINO by Franco Angeli, Italy 2022, w.p.

Cinema&Fiction – Teatro Kursaal Santalucia

This non-competitive section – resuming a past program dating back to the first years of Bif&st and now especially supported by Bcc Bari – will include Italian and international Tv works (Tv movies, miniseries, long series, docufictions, etc.) as absolute Italian premieres, together with meetings with renown talents and with books presentations. There will be many works coproduced by Rai Fiction whose director, Maria Pia Ammirati, will hold in Bari on March 26 a press conference to introduce upcoming productions, some of which have been shot in Puglia.

The program “Cinema&Fiction” will be announced in a press conference on March 22.

Pasolini 100 – Teatro Petruzzelli e Teatro Piccinni

Bif&st will not host the previously announced complete retrospective of the works by Pier Paolo Pasolini, due to many similar events in Italy since last January. Instead, the festival will present two films by and about Pasolini, on the hundredth anniversary of his birth:

• MAMMA ROMA by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy 1962, copy restored by CSC-Cineteca Nazionale introduced by Alberto Anile

• LA MACCHINAZIONE by David Grieco, Italy 2016, introduced by the Author.

Teatro Piccinni will also host five Lessons on Pasolini writer and poet, filmmaker and polemicist, in collaboration with University of Bari. The Lessons will be coordinated by David Grieco and Angela B. Saponari, with the participation of Roberto Chiesi, Lea Durante, Pasquale Voza, Giovanni Giovannetti, Giona Tuccini, Silvio Parrello, Onofrio Romano.

Cinema, Industry&Work – Teatro Piccinni

A program of 5 films – promoted and organized in collaboration with Confindustria and ANCE Bari and BAT by Enzo Augusto and Michele Laforgia. Each screening will be followed by a Meeting. These are the titles of the program, which will include a mini-tribute to a great French film director, Stéphane Brizé, in attendance, with three films presented in Cannes and Venice festivals:

• SPAZIO ITALIANO – Dalle origini al progetto San Marco by Marco Spagnoli, Italy 2022
• L’INDUSTRIALE by Giuliano Montaldo, Italy 2011
• LA LOI DU MARCHÉ by Stéphane Brizé, France 2015
• EN GUERRE by Stéphane Brizé, France 2018
• UN AUTRE MONDE by Stéphane Brizé, France 2021

Participants in the meetings: Michele Emiliano, Domenico Laforgia, Giovanni Sylos Labini, Maria Laterza, Carmelo Rollo, Sergio Fontana, Pino Gesmundo, Angela Arbore, Vito Bruno, Beppe Fragasso, Oscar Iarussi and Stéphane Brizé, whose latest films is distributed in Italy by Stefano Jacono for Movies Inspired.

Cinema&Books – Teatro Margherita

Several books will be presented by their authors:

• IO E I #GREENHEROES. Perché ho deciso di pensare verde by Alessandro Gassmann
• L’EQUAZIONE DEL CUORE by Maurizio De Giovanni

·         STANLEY AND US. 1997 – 2001: UN’ODISSEA KUBRICKIANA by Mauro Di Flaviano, Federico Greco, Stefano Landini

• STAR WARS. La poetica di George Lucas by Federico Greco

·         È REALE?  Guida empatica del cinedocumentarista by Gianfranco Pannone

• MONICA VITTI by Chiara Ricci
• UGO TOGNAZZI. RIDERE È UNA COSA SERIA by Chiara Ricci
• LA GRANDE ILLUSIONE. STORIE DI UNO SPETTATORE by Roy Menarini
• DONNE CHE SFIDANO LA TEMPESTA by Myrta Merlino

Meetings and press conferences – Teatro Margherita

Daily meetings with film guests of all sections and Press conferences. The last conference will assess the 2022 edition and will outline the guidelines of Bif&st from 2023 onwards.

Workshops on cinema – Università degli Studi, Palazzo ex Poste

Workshops organized during Bif&st 2022:

• Film direction workshop by Roberto Faenza
• Film production workshop by Elda Ferri.

Bari, March 1^st 2022