Italian film festival opens this Friday

The third edition of the N.I.C.E Italian Film Festival opens on Friday in Cork with the screening of a film about two teenage boys from Senegal as they try to get into Europe.

Organised by the Embassy of Italy in Ireland, the Italian Institute of Culture and the Italian Irish Chamber of Commerce, the festival opens today in Dublin before opening in Cork a day later.

The N.I.C.E Italian Film Festival will run until 5 May in Dublin, Cork and Galway and the films have been selected by N.I.C.E. (New Italian Cinema Events), a cultural association in Italy whose aim is to promote new Italian cinema abroad, through the organization of festivals and cultural exchanges.

Ruggero Corrias, Ambassador of Italy to Ireland said: “It is a great pleasure to host the third edition of the N.I.C.E. Italian Film Festival this year. Thanks to the commitment of the Italian institutions in Ireland such as the Embassy, the Institute of Culture and the Italian-Irish Chamber of Commerce, together with local partners, the festival will arrive in three cities: Dublin, Cork and Galway.

“This year we celebrate a very particular anniversary. On the 20th of April 1954, the Italian Institute of Culture was inaugurated in its current location in Dublin, and we are glad to celebrate 70 years of promoting both Italian language and culture with this event.”

Directed by Marco Garrone the film ‘Io Capitano’ which follows two teenage boys from Senegal as they try to get into Europe opens the festival in Cork this Friday. ‘Io Capitano’ was nominated for 2024 Academy Awards as Best International Feature Film.

Over the course of the festival in Cork, the festival will screen six Italian films in Cork, all which will be subtitled in English.

Films to note include ‘Il primo giorno della mia vita’ which is directed by Paolo Genovese, ‘Felicità’ directed by Micaela Ramazzotti, ‘Palazzina LAF’ directed by Michele Riondino and ‘Dieci Minuti’ directed by Maria Sole Tognazzi. The N.I.C.E Italian Film Festival will close in Cork on Sunday 28 April with the screening of 'L’ultima notte di Amore’ directed by acclaimed Italian director Andrea Di Stefano. The film tells the story of a police lieutenant who on the night before his retirement is asked to investigate a crime scene where his best friend has been killed during a diamond heist.