The San Diego Italian Film Festival returns this fall with in-person screenings of seven films that will focus on the “Importance of Choice.”

In this climate, choice can seem like a charged word, but it shouldn’t. Our ability to think, discern, analyze and ultimately choose is what makes us human.

It is why Victor Laruccia, the founder and the president of the San Diego Italian Film Festival, selected the “Importance of Choice” as the theme for feStivale 2022 last before his death in March of this year.

However controversial the word “choice” might seem now, we know that Victor would want to have a dialogue about what it means to choose and what our choices say about us and the world we would like to create.

Victor always compared SDIFF to a piazza, a place where people could come together to share their stories and ideas, creating a community where everyone could be heard and where new perspectives could be forged. His death has left a void not only in our organization but also in San Diego’s arts and culture community.

That’s why we want to dedicate feStivale 2022 to his memory as we choose to continue our movies and events to honor his incredible legacy.Through his example, work and leadership, we can continue to have the conversations that are essential to creating a world where everyone has a choice and the agency to make the world a better place.

This year’s feStivale includes romantic comedies, independent films, dramas, documentaries, and more that will explore the concept of choice through many lenses. There will be five films screened at TheMuseum of Photographic Arts (MOPA), one at La Paloma in Encinitas and one at the Digital Gym, plus the fifteen short film finalists for our fourth edition SDIFF Ristretto Award Competition.

Through these movies, SDIFF hopes to continue to realize Victor’s vision of creating a community that people choose to be part of, a piazza where we can examine life’s most complicated choices together.

Buona visione!

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