John Travolta, Isabelle Huppert, Pamela Anderson and Josh Safdie will be among the honorees at the 44th Turin Film Festival, which will be held in the Piedmontese capital from 24 November to 2 December.
There will also be tributes to Luc Besson, Fanny Ardant, Margarethe von Trotta, Stephen Frears, Mike Newell, Maria de Medeiros, Andy Garcia and Mira Sorvino. Special guests include Chiwetel Ejiofor, Abel Ferrara, Asia Argento, Albert Serra and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, each presenting new or classic works.
In keeping with tradition, 12 career achievement awards will be presented, all in the form of the 12-point statue atop Turin’s Museo Nazionale del Cinema and the Stella della Mole, the emblem of both the city and the event. Travolta, among the first honorees announced, will join director Roland Joffé to open the 44th edition of the JFK assassination drama “November 1963” with its international premiere.
“John Travolta is one of the greatest legends of cinema,” says artistic director Giulio Base. “For half a century, she moved effortlessly through the history of cinema with class and grace, but she never seemed aloof. People think of her as part of their family, part of their history, part of their life. Few actors can claim to have changed the culture, but the way she walked the streets of New York at the beginning of ‘Saturday Night Fever’ changed the way people moved. I remember how every man tried to imitate her. That kind of impact is rare.”
“Personally, I’ve loved it since I was a kid,” Base continues, recalling the “fire” around “Grease” and the near-riots at the Turin premiere. “People were fighting to get in, and I was part of that crowd!”
Accordingly, the premiere in 1978 was held at the Teatro Regio; Here, Travolta and other award winners will accept lifetime achievement awards on the opening night.
Base has taken a populist streak three times during his five-year tenure, encouraging guests to spend as much time as possible with local audiences and turning to stars proven to attract crowds. talk with Diversity Ahead of this year’s casting announcement, he draws a line between filmmakers Mike Newell and Stephen Frears, who “switch between worlds, eras and genres with remarkable flair” while displaying “the same remarkable ability to win over audiences.”
Safdie offers a more recent example. Although the “Marty Supreme” director was unable to attend his film’s surprise screening at last year’s festival, the evening remains a touchstone for the communal experience that first sparked Base’s own cinephilia and that he now hopes to recreate.
“The screening was crazy,” says Base. “Of course it was a packed hall, but afterwards outside people stayed there for an hour. Young men, students, professors, talking about the film like old times. It was really something special that touched people. An Italian journalist wrote me an email saying it was probably the best night of the festival, so I replied with a stupid emoji but then I thought he might be right!”
One of Base’s signature initiatives is Zibaldone, a program that brings together restorations, commemorations, special screenings and premieres under a name taken from the famous collection of poet Giacomo Leopardi. This year’s eclectic spirit is reflected in this year’s winners, who include artistic masterpieces like von Trotta, the first woman to win the Golden Lion, and global audience pleasers like Besson, whom Base calls “a world-conquering French director.”
The cast also includes French cinema icons Huppert and Ardant, as well as Canadian-born pop culture phenom Anderson, who leaps from B-movies to studio comedies to contemporary auteur films, perhaps best capturing the spirit of Zibaldone.
“Pamela Anderson is another dream come true for me,” says Base. “His career is like a cocktail where someone mixes different types of liquor and it still tastes good. He had the courage to reinvent himself, surprising those who thought they already knew him. He is an example of how to succeed and transform.”
Base has transformed the festival itself, streamlining both the selection and geographic footprint with audience accessibility in mind.
“As a programmer, I don’t like festivals where everything is abundant,” he says. “I think of festivals as being like an art gallery, where each work has its own space and can be appreciated by anyone who walks through it.”
Between the opening and closing galas at the historic Teatro Regio, the honorees will meet local audiences for a Q&A at two cinemas just 500 meters away in the city centre. Both venues have personal significance for Base – he had his first job at one, his first kiss at the other – but the decision to hold the festival in such a compact space also reflects a more practical concern.
“As a moviegoer, you have to think about when the screening will end and when you can get something to eat,” he explains. “It’s so much easier when everything is nearby. So you can watch as many movies as you want without worrying about time.”