While two major International Film Festivals are taking place in Venice and Toronto, the American Initiative For Italian Culture (www.aific.org) based in Washington, DC, offers the first Film Festival entirely dedicated to the Italian Cinema, called Italian Film SUDestival, September 19-24, 2014, at West End Cinema. 

The name SUDestival comes from the edition born in the south of Italy, in the Puglia region, in 2000. It represents the best of Italian Independent Cinema, offering premieres by young filmmakers who, thanks to this first exposure, may subsequently gain national and international recognition. Filmmakers like Garrone and Sorrentino at the beginning of their career, had the opportunity to be known throughout this venue. 

Bringing to the US Italian premieres is part of the mission of the American Initiative For Italian Culture - AIFIC - a foundation that promotes the appreciation of Italian and American Art and Culture by creating initiatives which enrich Italy and the USA, offering a two-way cultural bridge between the two countries.

The main purpose of the Italian Film SUDestival is to sustain Italian emergent directors, screenwriters and actors as significant carriers of Italian culture. At the same time, AIFIC seeks to acquaint the American public with contemporary Italian cinema, thereby enabling viewers to gain a deeper understanding not only of the films, but also of Italian culture and society. 

The Italian Film SUDestival in DC offers 6 feature films and 3 shorts - all of them with English subtitles - which reveal to the American audience aspects of contemporary Italian reality through the lens of a talented new generation of filmmakers. The program covers different genres of film, from drama, to comedy, to fantasy, to thriller, capable to grasp the attention of the American audience.

The Italian Film SUDestival program consists of 3 sections:
Three filmmakers, Fabio Mollo, director of South is Nothing (Il Sud E' Niente), Gabriele Cecconi, with The Seminarian (Il Seminarista), Giuseppe Gigliorosso, director of At precisely six o'clock (Alle diciotto in punto), and the Artistic Director of the Italian edition Michele Suma will be introduced during the opening night at the Italian Embassy. 

The Italian Film SUDestival continues at George Washington University - Location: Room 702 in the MELVIN GEMAN Library - with a panel discussion comparing the Italian and American cinema industries with the participation of American film critics, scholars and the public. 

The festival screenings will continue at the West End Cinema on September 23-25. Directors are present in the theatre for Q&A with the audience. 

In Washington, the festival is endorsed by the Italian Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute. It is promoted and sponsored by AIFIC - The American Initiative For Italian Culture. 

For more info
www.aific.org

www.westendcinema.com

www.iicwashington.esteri.it