Festival Data:

• Established: 1959
• Genre: Documentary (click to see)
• Attendance: 9000
• Media Attendance: 48
• Accredited Industry Attendance: 181
• Total Number of Films Submitted: 800
• Total Number of Films Screened: 84
• Total Screenings: 84
• # of Shorts Screened: 18
• # of Features Screened: 55
• Accreditations: ECFF

• Competitive

Festival Website:

Festival Description:

The Festival dei Popoli demonstrates an enthusiastic dialectical spirit, taking a fresh educational approach that goes beyond the International Competitions and rewards of the Main Program, and eschews post-production debates for a week of bringing together filmmakers and producers to participate in roundtable discussions, workshops and general gatherings

The festival acts as a studio, a place in which we not only watch films and discuss world events, but also plan films to come. The project’s goal is to form a ’’Foundation’’ that will select high-quality creative projects to partially finance, offering residences, tutorials and meetings with producers for select filmmakers.

The Festival dei Popoli embarks on a promotional campaign locally (City, Province, Region), nationally (in other cities), and internationally (by collaborating with other festivals). That means collaborating with other local cultural groups, developing profitable relationships and fostering organized projects in the film world.

The festival works with other cities to host national documentary screenings, photography exhibits, music concerts and dining events. In exchange, Florence is often invited to other cities to screen Italian documentaries while also having the opportunity to promote the city, its culture, arts, and gastronomy.

In collaboration with other festivals, the Festival is working toward creating a digital streaming source for its documentaries; a collection of DVDs is being created to be distributed via internet or through a network of special libraries.

GENERAL OUTLINE

The project functions like a VCR player: the present (Play), past (Rewind), and the future (Fast-forward). Just so, the films in the International Competition and Main Program mark present-day concerns; those in the Retrospective, Master, Young Filmmakers and Thematic Section deal with the past; the ’’Foundation’’ projects look to the future. They all hinge on the conference about the status of documentary film, the true genius loci of the Festival dei Popoli. The interpretation of documentary film as a tool for recording and bearing witness, as well as a form of personal expression, is the conference’s corollary. The festival is designed to be an organic and harmonious entity stretching out in all directions like a living organism.

PROGRAM

The 49th annual Festival is currently being organized. For the moment, these are our categories. Adjustments and additions will be communicated as they arise, including film selections, jury members and honored guests.

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION:
14 features and 10-12 shorts, World Premiere films (alternatively European or Italian Premiere).

MAIN PROGRAM:
10 contemporary films, Italian Premiere, that cover the range of documentary forms, from installation work to fiction.

RETROSPECTIVE:
20 documentary films from a select country to be organized in collaboration with another festival in that country (a joint project in which the Festival dei Popoli will screen recent Italian productions in said country). A book with interviews and essays will be published in conjunction with the retrospective.

MASTER IN FOCUS:
10 films by a filmmaker of international repute. A critical study with interviews and essays will be published, and a lecture and/or a roundtable discussion will be held in conjunction with the homage.

YOUNG FILMMAKERS IN FOCUS:
3 filmmakers with five films each, with respective workshops; an essay in the festival catalogue plus an interview with each filmmaker and film sheets will be published.

THEMATIC SECTION:
5 documentary films on a single subject; comparative forms of representation; one or more guests will be present.

NANOOK’S HERITAGE: An international roundtable discussion about the status of contemporary documentaries with theorists, filmmakers, producers, and directors of international festivals.

JURIES AND PRIZES

OFFICIAL JURY PRIZE: A 5 person panel will award two prizes for Best Film for a cash prize of 10,000 Euros, and Best Director for a cash prize of 5,000 Euros.

LORENZO DE’ MEDICI/UNIVERSITA’ DI FIRENZE PRIZE: A cash prize of 2,500 Euros will be judged by a panel of 10 students coordinated by a turor.

AUDIENCE AWARD: Audiences at the Festival dei Popoli will vote on films from the International Competition and Main Programme.