Italian Film Festival hosted in the Lighthouse

By Katie Shadlow, | May 5, 2023.

A “New Italian Cinema Events’ (NICE) Film Festival came to the Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield this year, after a first and very well attended edition in Cork in 2022.

*Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield. Photo: Katie Shadlow*

The 2023 edition took place from April 28 through May 1. This year’s programme featured a mix of new Italian films by up-and-coming directors.

The festival seeks to promote Italian film internationally, with organisers saying that discovering new talent is paramount and it helps to ensure that Italian filmmakers can be appreciated both in the homeland and abroad.

The programme included nine new films which tell the story of Italy’s past and present along with two biographical films based on two of the most illustrious and famous Italian authors in the world – Dante Alighieri and Luigi Pirandello.

Also included was a film by one of Italy’s most well-known contemporary personalities, Pierfrancesco Diliberto, known as ‘Pif’.

Pif’s movie, ‘On Our Watch’, explored themes of work, mass media, society and human relationships in the internet age.

Other movies explored topics such as the expectations and difficulties of today’s young people, and the themes of social integration, crime and immigration.

There were also biographical films about two of the most illustrious and famous Italian authors, Dante Alighieri and Luigi Pirandello.

“The aim is to represent a cultural reference for those who love our country, along with the hope of fully including the festival in the rich international film programming that takes place every year in Ireland,” Marco Gioacchini, director of the Italian Institute of Culture in Dublin, told DublinLive.

Striking images from some of the featured films are below: