As Rome prepares to lay down the red carpet for its first ever film festival, organisers are keen to allay fears that the event poses a threat to Venice's veteran fest.
Organisers stressed this week that the Rome festival had different aims from the Venice Film Festival, which has just closed.
"Venice focuses on an excellent selection of films. Instead, here we'll be presenting lots of good movies but above all, we want to give the public an all-round, broad cinema experience complete with shows, books and music," they said.
The names of the 16 films competing in the October 13-21 Rome competition will be unveiled next Tuesday.
The line-up is already known to include the money-themed Italian drama A Casa Nostra (Our Home) by Francesca Comencini and Gardens in Autumn by acclaimed Georgian moviemaker Otar Iosseliani.
But the competition almost risks taking a back seat to the numerous film premieres, screenings, exhibitions, book presentations and other events that have been planned to fill out the festival. Nicole Kidman has been signed up to open the event with the world premiere of her film Fur based on the life of photographer Diane Arbus and directed by Steven Shainberg. Another screen beauty, Italy's Monica Bellucci, will be present for the premiere of N: Napoleon and Me, by Paolo Virzi, which is set on the island of Elba during Napoleon's exile.
Other major premieres include Martin Scorsese's The Departed, a remake of a Hong Kong crime thriller with Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon; the noirish La Sconosciuta (The Stranger) by Italian Oscar-winner Giuseppe Tornatore; and The Namesake, a tale of immigration by internationally feted Indian director Mira Nair.
Meanwhile, Sean Connery will receive the festival's first career achievement award.
With the presence of so many big names and such important films, Venice has been justifiably jittery about the festival launch, concerned that it could eventually be overshadowed or even sunk by it. Venice, whose 74-year-old festival is the oldest in the world, has already complained about the timing of the Rome fest, which begins little more than a month after the end of the lagoon city's.
Scheduled the way they are now, observers say, the two festivals are bound to vie for stars and premieres. Relations were openly strained after Venice Director Marco Mueller implied last month that Rome was having to make do with movie 'rejects'.
Mueller told reporters that Rome would screen films that "neither we nor Cannes wanted". Irate Rome fest organisers called the remark "incredibly
offensive" for the capital's debut number and the films it is showcasing.
Mueller denied any intent to offend - while Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni played down the incident, adding he would "never say a word against Venice". But the cinema-loving mayor appeared to land some digs of his own by depicting Venice as geared to the film business and his own creation as more viewer-friendly.
Whereas the Venice race is decided by a star-studded jury, the verdict in Rome will be up to 50 ordinary cinema goers who have been picked from hundreds of applicants.
