feStivivale-2021

PRESENTS

October 7 – 31, 2021

Join us as we celebrate our 15th feStivale with a very special selection of films with a theme around Resilience. Our annual feStivale is comprised of seven in-person films, two online films and 16 shorts for our 3rd Annual Ristretto Shorts Competition.

EXPLORE THE FESTIVAL

A Resilience Perspective

Welcome to the 15th edition of the San Diego Italian Film Fesitival!

The San Diego Italian Film Festival returns to in-person screenings at the Museum of Photographic Arts this year, with seven films screened in person, two offered online, and sixteen shorts of our Ristretto Award competition.

This year’s theme for feStivale is the Art of Resilience. Often resilience comes from holding hands while we rise and derive our individual sense of accomplishment as we help each other overcome our adversity.

SDIFF presents cinematic art that tells stories about what strengthens an individual and what helps rebuild a community. The power of strength and solidarity are necessary, and the stories we share use art to make us feel and understand forces that weigh us down.

This year’s selection includes romantic comedies, independent films, dramas, documentaries, and more never seen before in San Diego. We look at our feStivale 2021 edition in this light: Art focusing on our common humanity. We hope to convey the joys of sharing stories as we all rise together.

Buona visione e buon divertimento!

DON't MISS A SINGLE EVENT!

Find the right pass for you, and dive into the best of Italian cinema and culture.

Humanitarian

Full Pass + Donation

Includes all Features, Shorts, Ristretto AwardsGala and SDIFF Donation

Includes all Features, Shorts, and Ristretto Awards Gala

GA $275 | SDIFF Members $250

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Persistence

Features Pass Only

Includes all Features and Live Q&A Discussions

GA $145 | SDIFF Members $130

BUY PASS

Sustainability

Shorts Pass Only + Ristretto Awards Gala

Includes all Features and Live Q&A Discussions

GA $155 | SDIFF Members $140

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FILM SELECTION

This year’s films draw us into each filmmaker’s unique perspective on their subject matter and we’ve partnered with local organizations to bring you a larger perspective on those subjects. Many of the films we’re showing will include moderated panels with members of those organizations.

OCT
7:30 PM

Lacci

The Ties

Museum of Photographic Arts

Naples, early 1980s. Aldo and Vanda go through a separation after he reveals an affair. Their two young children are torn between their parents, in a whirlwind of resentment.

FILM DETAILS & TICKETS

OCT
7:30 PM

Rione Sanità – La certezza dei sogni

Rione Sanità – The Certainty of Dreams

MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS

Father Antonio Loffredo is the key advocate of the rebirth of Rione Sanità, in Naples. From the church of Santa Maria della Sanità the stories of all the protagonists of the film unfold, with developments, plots, hopes and difficulties overcome and to be overcome.

FILM DETAILS & TICKETS

OCT
7:30 PM

Il traditore

The Traitor

MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS

The Traitor tells the true story of Tommaso Buscetta, the man who brought down the Cosa Nostra. In the early 1980s, an all-out war rages between Sicilian mafia bosses over the heroin trade.

FILM DETAILS & TICKETS

OCT
7:30 PM

Rosa pietra stella

Rose Stone Star

MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS

Italian cinema still brings us beautiful, contemporary Neorealist films. Rosa Pietra Stella is the lively fiction feature debut from documentary director Marcello Sannino. The protagonist is 30-year-old Carmela (the title of the film refers to a line from a song with the same title: “Rose, rock, star”), who scrapes together a living doing a range of odd jobs.

FILM DETAILS & TICKETS

14-16

OCT
ONLINE

Baci rubati – Amori omosessuali nell’Italia fascista

Stolen Kisses – Homosexual Love in Fascist Italy

ONLINE ONLY

This documentary focuses on two different aspects of the repression of LGBT people during the fascist dictatorship: the legislative and psychiatric aspect of the repression, and the courage of those who, despite the imposed restrictions, managed to live their lives following their own inclinations and choices.

FILM DETAILS & TICKETS

OCT
7:30 PM

Santiago, Italia

Santiago, ItalY

MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS

In the early seventies, the world was watching as Chile democratically elected Socialist leader Salvador Allende. His political ideals and aspirations—including providing education for all children and distributing land to the nation’s workers—terrified the country’s right wing, as well as the U.S.

FILM DETAILS & TICKETS

OCT
7:30 PM

Molecole

Molecules

MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS

Between February and April 2020, director Andrea Segre got stuck in Venice during the lockdown: Venice, hometown of his father and just partially his own. At the time, he was working on two theatre and movie projects about threats to the city: tourism and high water.

FILM DETAILS & TICKETS

OCT
7:30 PM

LA FELLINETTE (short) + Shows before feature film

Romantic Guide to Lost Places

MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS

“Fellinette”, a little girl drawn in a notebook back in 1971 by Maestro Federico Fellini, is the protagonist of this fairy tale set on the beach in Rimini on January 20, 2020, the day of the hundredth anniversary of the great master’s birth.

FILM DETAILS & TICKETS

OCT
7:30 PM

Guida romantica a posti perduti

Romantic Guide to Lost Places

MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS

Romantic Guide to Lost Places is an unusual road movie that ranges across Europe looking for forgotten places, during which two strangers, both trapped in lives of deceit, come to terms with their own pasts.

FILM DETAILS & TICKETS

28-30

OCT
ONLINE

Lontano Lontano

Citizens of the World

ONLINE ONLY

Three retirees decide to move away from Rome to find a better standard of living in a country where their insufficient pensions will go that much further. Planning for the trip sees the trio trawl the pubs and restaurants of a sun-saturated Rome and discover that even at an old age they can still learn one or two lessons about themselves and life.

FILM DETAILS & TICKETS

FESTIVAL TRAILER

Join us for a celebration of Resilience and find out who the winners of our 3rd Annual Italy Exported competition are, watch their awarded shorts and chat with the Directors live.

Vote for your favorite short and be part of selecting the Audience Ristretto Award winner! Take a seat and enjoy the show from the comfort of your home while savoring special menus from Ciccia Osteria, wine from Principe di Tricase Winery and delicious treats from GelatoLove!

Saturday, October 23rd

5:30-9:30 PM. Museum of Photographic Arts

$75 General Public
$60 SDIFF Members, Students & Military

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