Roseto Opera Prima reaches its twenty-eighth edition in 2024 and once again places the discovery and enhancement of Italian cinema at the center of its content proposal with the prestigious competition of first feature films.
Edition number 28 will be preceded on June 30 at 9 p.m. by a special event, at the Town Hall Square in Montepagano, featuring a screening of the blockbuster film C’è ancora domani by Paola Cortellesi.
The opening and the four-day festival, which will take place July 10-13 at the Roseto Municipal Villa and at the Bollamare establishment on the Celommi waterfront, is organized and promoted by the Sulmonacinema Aps association in collaboration with Meta Aps and with the contribution and cooperation of the Roseto degli Abruzzi City Council.
The core around which the event revolves is the enhancement and promotion of the best debut talents in national cinema. A common thread that this year is substantiated through the selection of three debuts by female directors. “A choice that is not meant to pander to a fashionable or contingency trend with respect to a historical moment in which the issue is particularly and, rightly, felt. Rather, we were guided by a qualitative assumption that allowed us to base the choice on a meritocratic basis. On the other hand, as Paolo Sorrentino well said during the presentation of his latest film Parthenope, the contemporary epic cannot disregard the narrative centrality of the female point of view,” says competition artistic director Carlo Liberatore.
The selected works that will be screened to the public during the three evenings of the festival, starting at 9 p.m., will also compete for the final Roseto Opera Prima award, decreed by a jury composed of three members of the editorial staff of the trade magazine “Best Movie” and awarded during the awards ceremony scheduled for Saturday, July 13.
The films are: Happiness by Micaela Ramazzotti, Flaminia by Michela Giraud , andGloria! by Margherita Vicario.
Many guests from the Italian film scene have confirmed their participation in the 2024 edition of the Festival, hosted by presenter Francesca Martinelli, assisted by young film critic Davide Stanzione: Enrico Melozzi (July 10), Cristiano Caccamo (July 11), Galatea Ranzi (July 12), Rocco Papaleo (July 13). Guests will be featured in the well-established format “Scene first – Stories of beginnings” in which through an interview, on the festival stage, they will tell anecdotes and stories related to their own artistic beginnings. “This will be a particularly heartfelt moment precisely because of the value that these valuable testimonies can arouse, especially in younger people. Our hope is that they may find in their stories inspiration and comparison,” these are the words of Patrizio Maria D’Artista, president of Meta Aps.
SIDE EVENTS. Not only film screenings but also exhibitions and cultural highlights will have ample space in the locations of the 28th edition of Roseto Opera Prima.
On Wednesday, July 10 and Thursday, July 11, at the Bollamare establishment on the Celommi Lunogmare, starting at 6:30 p.m. and ending at 7:30 p.m., the Festival will host the format The cinema does! Dialogues on the new Abruzzi cinema In collaboration with Roseto Art.Lab. Producer and IFA founder Cristiano Di Felice, director Maurizio Forcella, actor Andrea Fuorto, and screenwriter and director Simone Bozzelli will speak. Film critic Davide Stanzione will moderate the dialogue. A film-themed digital art exhibition entitled Cinepixel will be inaugurated on Friday, July 12, at the premises of the Municipal Villa of the City of Roseto degli Abruzzi and organized in collaboration with Villa in Arte under the artistic direction of Bruno Cerasi.
An Audience Award will also be established in collaboration with the Sulmona International Film Festival, an exclusive partner of the film festival in Rosemona, through the screening of three short films during the final awards night on July 13: The One Note Man by George C. Siougas, Dive by Aldo Iuliano and Rosemary A.D. (After Dad) by Ethan Barrett.
Participation in all days of the festival is free of charge.
An event, that of Roseto Opera Prima, which looks forward, which believes in the communicative power of collective fruition and whose constitutive goal is determined in the connection between the present and the filmmakers of the future.
“We return with pleasure to Roseto degli Abruzzi,” declares Sulmonacinema Aps President Marco Maiorano, “after the successful and participatory experience of 2023. For the second year in a row, we have the honor of planning and organizing together with the city administration the Roseto Opera Prima festival, a kermesse that has the same DNA as our SIFF (Sulmona International Film Festival), that is, the goal of discovering and giving voice to the filmmakers of the present and especially of the future, enhancing the talent, research, and in-depth study of the most current and heartfelt content of the new generations of filmmakers. We are also collaborating more and more fruitfully with local cultural and artistic realities, weaving networks and reserving due space for the many creative ferments of regional expression.”
THE FULL PROGRAM
Sunday, June 30
Montepagano ► Town Hall Square:
9:00 pm – 11:30 pm: Opening event of the 18th Edition.
► Screening of the out-of-competition film C’è ancora domani by Paola Cortellesi.
■ Film historian and Abruzzo Film Commission President Piercesare Stagni introduces the film. Francesca Martinelli presents.
Wednesday, July 10
Roseto degli Abruzzi ► Lungomare Celommi – Bollamare Establishment:
6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.: Cinema does it! Dialogues on new Abruzzo cinema in collaboration with Roseto Art.Lab. Producer and IFA founder Cristiano Di Felice and director Maurizio Forcella will speak. Film critic Davide Stanzione will moderate the dialogue.
Roseto degli Abruzzi ► Municipal Villa:
9:00 – 9:15 p.m.: Presentation of the evening by Francesca Martinelli.
■ Intervention by actress Valeria Angelozzi with Fable in seven limbs.
9:15 p.m. – 9:45 p.m.: First appointment of the format Scene First – Stories of Debuts. Meeting with composer Enrico Melozzi. Film critic Davide Stanzione will moderate.
9:45 p.m. – 11:45 p.m.: Screening of the competition film Felicità by Micaela Ramazzotti.
Thursday, July 11
Roseto degli Abruzzi ► Lungomare Celommi – Bollamare Establishment:
6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.: Cinema does it! Dialogues on new Abruzzo cinema in collaboration with Roseto Art.Lab. Director and screenwriter Simone Bozzelli and actor Andrea Fuorto will speak. Film critic Davide Stanzione will moderate the dialogue.
Roseto degli Abruzzi ► Municipal Villa:
9:00 – 9:15 p.m.: Presentation of the evening by Francesca Martinelli.
9:15 p.m. – 9:45 p.m.: Second round of the format Scene First – Stories of Debuts. Meeting with actor Cristiano Caccamo. Film critic Davide Stanzione will moderate.
9:45 pm- 11:45 pm: Screening of the competition film Flaminia by Michela Giraud.
Friday, July 12
Roseto degli Abruzzi ► Municipal Villa:
6:30 pm: Opening of the Cinepixel Exhibition in collaboration with Villa in Arte.
9:00 – 9:15 p.m.: Presentation of the evening by Francesca Martinelli.
9:15 p.m. – 9:45 p.m.: Third round of the format Scene First – Stories of Debuts. Meeting with actress Galatea Ranzi. Film critic Davide Stanzione will moderate.
9:45 pm – 11:45 pm: Screening of the competition film Gloria! by Margherita Vicario.
Saturday, July 13
Roseto degli Abruzzi ► Municipal Villa:
9:15 p.m. – 11:15 p.m.: Award ceremony of the XXVIII Roseto Opera Prima.
► Tribute to Nino Rota by Mauro Di Ruscio (Piano) and Claudio Marzolo (Contrabass).
► Remembrance of founder Tonino Valerii with recognition of Mario Giunco for the historical memory of the Roseto Opera Prima Festival.
► Fourth appointment with the format Scene First – Stories of Debuts. Meeting with actor and director Rocco Papaleo. Film critic Davide Stanzione will moderate.
► Screening of the short films that will compete for the audience award. Selection by the Sulmona International Film Festival:
■ The One Note Man by George C. Siougas
■ Dive by Aldo Iuliano
■ Rosemary A.D. (After Dad) by Ethan Barrett
► Awarding the prize for the best film.
