A festival feting independent movie-makers from around the world kicks off in Rome on Friday, giving film buffs the chance to view scores of previously unseen signature works that have been overlooked by the established industry.
Now in its sixth year, the Rome Independent Film Festival, or RIFF, will showcase some 100 feature films, documentaries and shorts that are making their global or European debut.
With contributions from more than 50 countries, the eight-day festival aims to nurture international as well as home-made talent and bring the chosen films to the attention of distributors.
"'Distribution Wanted' would be a suitable slogan for the festival," said RIFF's founder and artistic director Fabrizio Ferrari.
Ferrari said his brainchild "increases the visibility of films that have been made with great courage," adding that "my dream is to see these films released".
In the best Italian short category, the winner and runners-up will be offered a distribution contract in Italy, a feature that the festival hope will eventually be extended to the feature film section.
Organisers underscored the growing success of RIFF, which was inundated with applications from independent film-makers eager to be selected for the 2007 competition.
The festival's categories, ten in all, have been extended this year to include videoclips and student films, as well as documentaries, video animation, digital short films and screenwriting.
A total of 15 movies were selected for the competitive feature section, including Italian Claudio Serughetti's Il Nostro Messia (Our Messiah); Last Night I Saw Your Dad, Aida! by Iranian director Rasul Sadrameli, who won the Berlin International Film Festival in 2000; Delivrez-moi by Canadian filmmaker Denis Chouinard, who was awarded by the Berlin festival in 2002; and The Book of Revelation by Australia's Ana Kokkinos, a winner of the Australian Writers' Guild.
Another 15 works will by vying against each other in the documentary category, including The Dentist of Jaipur by director Falk Peplinski, which focuses on two Indian dentists who treat their patients on the sidewalk outside a train station; and Alexandre Fuchs' Hijos de la Guerra (Children of War) about the world's largest criminal gang, the Mara Salvatrucha (also known as MS-13), which is active in central and North America and has an estimated 100,000 members.
HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE SPOTLIGHT.
RIFF will dedicate one day to human rights issues, in particular violence against women.
The screenings will be followed by a debate with directors and representatives of Amnesty International, which is one of the festival's sponsors, along with Rome city council and the European Commission.
The awards will be decided by a six-member international jury headed by Aminul Islam, the director of Bangladesh's Dakka festival.
The event opens on Friday night, with the screening of Rome film-maker Angelo Frezza's debut movie Sweet, Sweet Marja, a whimsical comedy starring Italian screen beauty and Maria Grazia Cucinotta.
