34th Torino Film Festival

Rising to a height of 167.5 meters, Mole Antonelliana, was built in the second half of the 19 th century, is the iconic monument of Torino, appearing on postcards and magnets. Since 2008 it also houses The National Cinema Museum, which has become one of the most visited museums in Italy. This unique museum, one of the most important of its kind in the world thanks to it vast collection, innovative curation and amazing space, is the centerpiece of the Torino Film Festival, which is the second largest film festival in Italy, following the Venice festival. It was founded in 1982 and over the years its directors have included Alberto Barbera, Nanni Moretti, Gianni Amelia and Paolo Virzi. It is now run by Emanuela Martini.

This year, the festival’s most interesting guests were probably the two maverick cinematographers, Ed Lachman who headed the festival’s jury, and Christopher Doyle who came to the festival with Wind, a 33 minute Malaysian film dedicated to his work. The energetic press conference with him was fascinating in many ways that most press conferences are not.

Alongside the main competition, which included 15 films from around the world, there were numerous other sections dedicated to documentary films (Italian and International) and films developed at the Torino Film Lab. There was also an interesting list of classic futuristic films such as Bertrand Tavernier’s Death Watch and Chris Marker’s La jetée, and an opportunity to discover lesser known classics such as Otto Preminger’s Where the Sidewalk Ends.

The FIPRESCI jury watched the main competition and chose to award Paris Prestige, an energetic debut French film, whereas the main jury gave their top award, as well as best screenplay award, to the Chinese social drama The Donor (Juan Zeng Zhe). Focusing on the complex issue of organ transplants, The Donor is the directing debut of Qiwu Zang, who learned his craft working alongside Zhang Yimou (he served as assistant director on The Curse of the Golden Flower). (Yael Shuv)

FIPRESCI winner:

Paris Prestige (Les derniers Parisiens), France, 2016, 106 minutes

Jury:

Yael Shuv (Israel), Frédéric Jaeger (Germany), Gianlorenzo Franzì (Italy)

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Festival: www.torinofilmfest.org