Rome Film Festival 2014 | Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma

16 - 25 October 2014 at the Auditorium Parco della Musica


Geraldine Chaplin at Rome Film Festival 2014
The ninth edition of the Rome Film Festival, with Marco Müller once again at the helm for a third and final time as artistic director, has just drawn to a close. The annual kermesse may have seen a dramatic cut in budget and consequently a reduced number of screenings this year, but there was still plenty to enjoy, with a rewarding selection of encounters with both mainstream and cult filmmakers and actors such as Miike Takashi (winner of this year’s Maverick Director Award 2014), Park Chan-wook, Jia Zhangke, Walter Salles (Marc’Aurelio Lifetime Achievement Award), and Geraldine Chapman, as well as a varied programme of world cinema premières.

In many ways I enjoyed this festival, with its focus away from mainstream big budget movies and Hollywood stars, more than previous years - there were some truly wonderful films in this year’s programme. Russian director Alexey Fedorchenko – inaugural winner of the Marc’Aurelio of the Future Award, a new festival prize – presented the stunning and poetic Angely Revoluciji (Angels of Revolution). Award-winning Chinese theatre director Xu Ang was in Rome with actor He Bing to present his debut film Shier gongmin (12 Citizens), an engaging transposition of Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men exploring the contradictions and different social strata of Chinese society. The film was warmly received during its première and took home the People's Choice Award in the Cinema d'Oggi category.   

Jia Zhangke and Walter Salles on stage in Rome
Walter Salles’ work-in-progress version of Jia Zhangke, un Gars de Fenyang (Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang), shown ahead of its official world première in Sao Paulo, was a fascinating, and often moving documentary about the life and work of the Chinese director, who also joined Salles for an on stage discussion after the screening. Kamisama no iutoori (As the Gods Will), Miike Takashi’s latest gory, gloriously bonkers, and thoroughly enjoyable film, was given its world première in the presence of the director and its young stars Sota Fukushi and Hirona Yamazaki. I also loved Dólares de arena (Sand Dollars), directed by Laura Amelia Guzman and Israel Cardenas, with its mesmerizing central performances by Geraldine Chaplin and co-stars Yanet Mojica and Ricardo Ariel Toribio.

Miike Takashi on the red carpet
From the screaming teenage (mostly) girls who bivouacked along the red carpet from dawn on Sunday morning to see Lily Collins and Sam Claflin attend the première of Love, Rosie, and later that same day, Josh Hutcherson and Benicio del Toro for Escobar: Paradise Lost, to the 1980s music fans who greeted Spandau Ballet for the Gala première of Soul Boys of the Western World, and with Richard Gere, Kevin Costner and Clive Owen on hand to add a pinch of Hollywood glamour, Müller’s festival really did have something for everyone.

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