Sicilian Film Festival raises its curtains again. The 4th edition in Miami

The ultimate selection of film participants is  finally revealed for the IV Sicilian Film Festival of Miami, the American display of Sicilian cinematography. It will take place from the 12th to the 19th of

April, 2009 at the Miami Beach Cinematheque under the patronage of the Sicilian Regional Assembly. The Sicilian Film Festival promotes the Sicilian culture and cinema here in the United States. It will offer many attractions and surprises and give tribute to those Sicilians that took part in the history of worldwide cinema.  Those who are not Sicilian can also receive an homage by the Sicilian Film Festival.

Last year the prestigous Carreer Award was given to Franco Nero who filmed many movies in Sicily.  This year Franco Nero has decided to return to the Sicilian Film

Festival where his film Diceria dell'untore, taken from the novel of Bufalino, will be shown.  Nero shot his film with his wife Vanessa Redgrave. 

As various critics have reported, the Sicilian Film Festival is worthy of the top spotlight in all the world regarding the existence of a real and true "Sicilian Cinema" and international recognition.  Quite a number of films were added to the selection aside from the Italian productions and foreign films.  MGM in Hollywood sent famous film Dressed To Kill, by Bryan DePalma, produced by Sicilian, George Litto, who will host a meeting at the festival in order to tell his story about his fortunate career.

Some of the titles in the competition section that will surely be of interest are:

The Sicilian Girl by Marco Amenta, distributed at the same time in Italy,

The Viceroys of Roberto Faenza, a great transposition from the novel written by Federico De Roberto;

Cover Boy by Carmine Amoroso, the Italian film that won the highest number of awards at the international film festivals, produced, among the others, by Augusto Allegra, who will also conduct a conference on his productions of Sicilian cinematography;

and films by young Sicilian writers like, Lisa Romano (If You Close Your Eyes).  

In addition there will be numerous documentaries, some presented by Gambero Rosso, about the culinary tradition and also The Black Vessels by Luigi Valente about the tuna-fishing net of Favignana and others about Sicily by Vincenzo Consolo; some other documentaries will be about various festivals and celebrations on in Sicily with shots in Palermo, Trapani, Selinunte, Marsala, Mozia, Ustica, Sant' Angelo Muxaro, San Biagio Platani, Prizzi, Terrasini, Cinisi, San Martino delle Scale, Etna, Siracusa, Vara and other places.

This year also La Sicilia di Montalbano will be one of the special events (with the collaboration of Antonio Bruni, the director of RAI for international festivals). It returns for the second time to bring the American public the new series of televised fiction interpreted by Luca Zingaretti about the novels of Andrea Camilleri. An international jury will give first prize to the feature films for best film, best production, best performance and best technical contribution;  there are one or two scheduled awards for best short film that are signed by some of the young writers, these are added to demonstrate the vitality and the future of Sicilian cinema;  furthermore , the IV Sicilian Film Festival will exclusively present the six short film finalists in the section of the Sicilian short Films at the Taormina Film Festival, directed by Deborah Young.

To complete the playbill, there will be parties and cocktails, press conferences, round tables, lessons, concerts, gastronomic events and much more. The Sicilian Film Festival is making Sicily known and appreciated throughout the world and is the creation of Sculptor, Emanuele Viscuso, who also acts as its President. The Artistic Director is Salvo Bitonti, whose accomplishments are: theater and film director and teacher of the History of Cinema.

The 1st of April an event of SFF will be also in Tegucigalpa, Honduras,  with the support of the Italian Embassy which is promoting a dedicated event to the festival in which the following films will be shown:  Letters From Sicily by Manuel Giliberti, the short film, Fedra by Salvo Bitonti and the documentary Stories of Sicily by Sasa' Salvaggio, already awarded at the Sicilian Film Festival.

The latest news, is a proposed project, The SFF is working on for the Sicilian Film Festival Web TV that may have its television cameras already for the next event. Let's remember that at the 2nd film festival event, the Mayor of Miami Beach officially proclaimed Sicilian Film Festival Day and granted the keys to the city to its creator Emanuele Viscuso. To promote a wide range of Sicilian culture Viscuso has also already created the International Festival of Organ Music in the Churches of the Historic Princedom of Castelbuono (F.I.M.O.) in Sicily. The first event was very successful since it was promoted in collaboration with the Sicilian Film Festival. Viscuso, as president also of this new festival, has confirmed the artistic direction of Diego Cannizzaro also for the second event of the FIMO that will be held in Castelbuono, Sicily from the 8th to the 14th of September 2009.

For the Program of the Event visit the Official Site of the Festival.