21/08/2023 - The event takes place from 22 to 27 August and features 111 screenings, between feature films, short films, music and brand videos

The Nòt Film Fest returns to Santarcangelo di Romagna from 22 to 27 August. The 6th edition of the event has the motto “Future Forward” and will screen 111 works, including 100 premieres, between  feature films, short films, documentaries, music videos, experimental and brand films, coming from 27 countries. In the programme are 14 world premieres, 10 international and four European.

The main competition Moonwalker Features this year includes ten feature films, four of which are produced or co-produced by the United States – A Pity by Kevin Barth and Alec Barth (USA), B-side for Taylor by Christina YR Lim (South Korea/USA), The Invisible Girl by Jaclyn Bethany (USA), and Me, Myself and the Void by Timothy Hautekiet (USA). Among the European titles we find The Antares Paradox [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Luis Tinoco Pineda (Spain), Cinque stanze by Bruno Bigoni (Italy), Made in Dublin [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Jack Armstrong (Ireland) and Once Upon a Time in the Future: 2121 by Serpil Altin (Turkey). Completing the selection are the Canadian film Wolves by Danny Dunlop and the Kazakh film Steppe by Maxim Akbarov.

The jury for this section will consist of Carte Blanche founder and CEO Kyle Stoud, screenwrite Tommy Swerdlow (Il Grinch, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) and Cineuropa journalist Davide Abbatescianni.

The Shooting Star Features jury meanwhile will be composed of senior manager for the Sundance Ignite programme Toby Brooks, special effects supervisor Chad Peter (The Killer) and director Paolo Strippoli (A Classic Horror Story [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

As for the short films, the Shooting Start Shorts section will be judged by director Giulia Grandinetti and producers Kim Magnusson and Rebecca Pruzan. The short films selected in the Moonwalker Shorts section, meanwhile, will be judged by legal expert Cinzia Galgano, director of photography Travers Jacobs and journalist Ileana Dugato.

The non-fiction feature and short films, presented in the Superdoc Features & Shorts section, will be evaluated by a jury composed of academic Roy Menarini and Ania Gawlita and Tomesz Wolski, documentary producers and directors of the “In Ukraine” section at the Berlinale.

Finally, the Branded/Music/Experimental jury will see the participation of producer Sarah El Khawand, journalist Jader Liberatore and director Paola Bernardini.

“We are pleased to announce the return of Nòt Film Fest for the sixth consecutive year. Since 2018 the festival has grown so much, becoming a reality that is able to create a new community dimension and at the same time, to bring out the cinematic value of an already extremely rich territory. We like to think that freedom and independence are two key words for the future of cinema and it is with that future in mind that we have thought of the festival and to that future that we look,” said Alizé Latini and Giovanni Labadessa, artistic directors of the event.

Established as one of two emerging Italian festivals for independent cinema, this sixth edition of the festival will have a new home, the Palazzo della Poesia. To mark the occasion, the entire building, situated at the heart of the city, will host screenings and workshops during the entire event. The ground floor of the Palazzo will have a lounge for filmmakers and a workshop room. On the first floor, meanwhile, will be two screening rooms named after Greta Gerwig and Sean Baker. This new space joins the open air cinema and the Castle Bar, two structures built for this purpose in the Spazio Sferisterio, where emerging filmmakers, veterans of the sector and cinephiles meet up every evening of the festival from 6pm onwards.

(Translated from Italian)