The Stars Align at the 14th Capri Hollywood Film Fest

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 16 December 2009 11:49

Written by Laura Blum

Since the dawn of civilization, midwinter festivals have harvested culture, community and light to compensate for the distant sun. The 14th annual Capri Hollywood Film Festival, which comes just after the December solstice, is South Italy’s cool-weather ritual of storytelling, parties and stars.
 
In the warmer months, tourists flock to the Isle of Capri. That’s not the case in winter, which is one reason why Capri in the World Institute and TV journalist Pascal Vicedomini created the Festival, in 1995. For one week a year, Capri becomes Hollywood in the Tyrrhenian, with entertainment headliners turning its central Piazzetta into Cannes’s Croisette.
 
This year’s session, spanning December 26, 2009 – January 2, 2010, will bask in the glow of singer/actor Mariah Carey, actors Samuel L. Jackson and Elsa Pataky, directors Jim Sheridan, Terry Gilliam, Antoine Fuqua and Harold Becker, composers Elliot Goldenthal and Michael Nyman and costume designer Colleen Atwood, among other celestial bodies receiving awards or sharing their wisdoms or both.
 
Don’t tell Palm Springs, but Capri prides itself on jumpstarting awards season. The Capri Award gala, which will take place on December 28 (a week before PSIFF), honors the year’s critical favorites and sparks insider speculation about Golden Globe and Oscar verdicts to come. For Italy, the Capri awards polish a proud tradition of trans-Atlantic collaboration; more pragmatically, they shine the limelight on the national industry at an opportune moment in the annual film calendar.
 
This year, Guiseppe Tornatore will accept a prize for his epic Sicilian tale, Baaria, which represents Italy in the Best Foreign Language Oscar category. Other compatriots to be garlanded in the 14th-century Charterhouse of St. James (Certosa di San Giacomo), where the gala ceremony will unfold, include Vincere director Marco Bellocchio, Christmas in Beverly Hills star Massimo Ghini, Letters to Juliet supporting actor Franco Nero and actor/writer/director Asia Argento, to name but a few.
 
Festival-goers can catch Italian and European premieres at the Charterhouse and mingle with the stars at the Venice Casino Lounge. Rob Marshall’s Nine, Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Lee Daniels’ Precious, Harold Becker’s Vengeance: A Love Story and Bigas Luna’s Di, Di Hollywood are some of the titles unspooling at the Festival, whose other venues include the Congress Center Auditorium and the Church of St. Michele, perched 900 feet above sea level in the village of Anacapri.   
 
Exchanges with industry brass include roundtables, post-screening discussions and the globally-themed Fiuggi Symposium. For young Italian auteurs, there’s also Capri Movie Class, a masterclass series taught by a power roster that boasts Jim Sheridan, Terry Gilliam and Harold Becker. Another initiative to coddle Italy’s budding talent is a shorts competition called To Be Italian–Proud of My Country, the winner of which will participate in the 5th Los Angeles-Italia Film, Fashion and Art Fest (February 28-March 6, 2010) leading up to the Academy Awards.
 
Honorees at the 14th Capri Hollywood Film Festival:
 
Mariah Carey, Capri Award
Elliot Goldenthal, Music Capri Legend Award
Marco Bellocchio, Master of Cinema - Legend Award
Harold Becker, Capri-Cis Career Award
Massimo Ghini, Capri Patroni Griffi Award
Terry Gilliam, Excellence Award

for more info go to: http://www.caprihollywood.com/

Capri in the World Institute

Via Rodolfo Lanciani, 74-00162
Rome, Italy
 
Charterhouse of St. James
Via Certosa,
Capri
 
Congress Center Auditorium
Vico Sella Orta, 3
Capri
 
Church of St. Michele
Piazza St. Nicola,
Anacapri

Related FFtrav story:
http://filmfestivaltraveler.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=339:italys-island-of-capri&catid=105:travel-feature&Itemid=107

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