— Highlights of the bold 2019 lineup!

Film lovers can expect another glamorous, star-studded Italian Contemporary Film Festival across Canada this June, with more movies and guest stars than ever, including writer and producer of the 2019 Best Picture Green Book, Nick Vallelonga, and renowned Italian composer, Nicola Piovani, winner of the 1999 Oscar for Best Original Score for Life is Beautiful.

Among the many stars arriving from Italy for this year’s festival are Ezio Greggio, Claudio Gubitosi, Luca Barbareschi, Fabio De Luigi and Piera Detassis.

The Italian Contemporary Film Festival, presented by IC Savings and in affiliation with Fare Cinema, announced the lineup for its 8th edition at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Toronto today. The 2019 program features 128 diverse and acclaimed films, including dozens of shorts and documentaries, totalling more than 190 screenings across the country – its largest and most ambitious program to date, which will see no shortage of star power.

Guests of the 2019 festival will include Nick Vallelonga, writer and producer of the 2019 Academy Award-winning film for Best Picture and Best Screenplay, Green Book; world-renowned Italian composer Nicola Piovani, winner of the 1999 Oscar for Best Original Score for Life is Beautiful (La vita è bella); Italian comedy legend and founder of the Monte Carlo Film Festival, Ezio Greggio; among many other famous Italian and international stars.

The 8th edition of the ICFF will run from June 13 to 21, 2019, during Italian Heritage Month, and will take place simultaneously in Toronto, Vaughan, Hamilton, Niagara, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City and Vancouver. For the second consecutive year, the festival is affiliated with Fare Cinema, a program launched by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) to promote quality Italian film production abroad, with the support of the Italian Embassy in Ottawa, the Italian Consulates and the Italian Cultural Institutes in Canada.

ICFF is pleased to announce a newly-formed three-year partnership with Rogers Communications, a long-term strategic agreement that will open new avenues from which to showcase and distribute Italian films to Canadian audiences.

Artistic Director and co-founder of ICFF, Cristiano de Florentiis, describes this as the largest and finest festival to date, with more participation by actors, producers and directors from Italy and abroad, than ever before. “This year’s festival will culminate with the celebration of two Oscar winners. This adds glamour to an event which aims to bring the elite members of Italian cinema to Toronto and Canada. With people like Piovani and Vallelonga, we aim to bridge the gap between the North American continent and Italy.”

ICFF 2019 will open on June 13th with a screening of the box office hit Dolceroma, the entertaining story of a young writer whose dream of turning his novel into a movie is about to implode before his eyes. The film is directed by Fabio Resinaro and stars the incredibly versatile film and television actor Luca Barbareschi, who is also the film’s producer. ICFF is poised to welcome the legendary Barbareschi to Canada for the premiere of this film and two others: I Am Mia (Io sono mia), the moving biopic of brilliant Italian singer Mia Martini, directed by Riccardo Donna, and Airplane Mode (Modalità aereo), the latest comedy by director Fausto Brizzi.

Since its first edition, the ICFF has screened a collection of hundreds of feature films, documentaries and shorts from more than 30 countries. Every year it attracts an audience of more than 40 thousand attendees in Toronto, Vaughan, Hamilton, Niagara, Ottawa, Montreal, Québec City and Vancouver, to screenings, workshops, industry events and galas. The ICFF is proudly Canadian and showcases international films defying conventional perspectives on
complex and challenging issues facing both the Italian and global communities.

Tickets for ICFF 2019:
Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.icff.ca, by calling 416-893-3966 in Toronto,
514-771-5222 in Montreal, or Toll Free at 1-833-929-3475, or at partner cinema outlets.