About us / San Diego Italian Film Festival / Not just Italian films

Excerpt from Beth Accomando's 2008 review of the San Diego Italian Film Festival

The San Diego Italian Film Festival, now in its second year, "invites you to celebrate life in the social piazza of cinema with recent films that depict life in Italy."

Although just in its sophomore year, the festival has a maturity about it. Maybe you get that feeling from the level of conversation at the panel discussions. The first year I had the honor of being part of a panel following a screening of I'm Not Scared and the authors and academics, along with the audience members provided a very lively, lengthy, and in depth conversation about the film. The willingness of the festival organizers to set aside a good chunk of time for discussion reflects a different attitude than most of the other festivals that are usually more pressed for time with a greater number of films packed into fewer days.

The only event that's not free is the Gala… If last year is any indication of what this year's Gala will be like then be prepared for some incredible food and film.

- Beth Accomondo

The San Diego Italian Film Festival (SDIFF) has an ambitious goal: To make San Diego a high spot for Italian culture.

Italy gives the world culture, and we want to share that culture through the movies we bring directly from Italy – great, award-winning, recent (with English subtitles), all with interesting stories of relationships, love, hate, work, food, identity, all the passions of life.

The SDIFF shows films throughout the year to a continually growing audience, last year filling over 5,000 seats. Almost all films are San Diego premieres, and the SDIFF is practically the only movie bridge between our local scene and Italian culture everywhere. And SDIFF also works at developing story-telling abilities, especially among the young, who will continue to create the culture we admire.

For a little while we can all be Italian; when we see an Italian film presented by the San Diego Italian Film Festival, we can join in a great moment of cultural creation all over the world, and at the same time know that all the world is contained in this one story we share right here, right now.