Studio Italia Cinema Italiano Festival

Overview

New Zealand's annual feast of Italian cinema is heading back to independent picture palaces for its fifth year. The Studio Italia Cinema Italiano Festival kicks off in Napier on 29 July, before making its viaggio around the country from Arrowtown to Waiheke Island.

There are 18 films playing as part of this year's festival. Organisers have secured two Paolo Sorrentino films, including the film maker's 2014 Oscar winner The Great Beauty (Le Grande Bellezza), and 2018's Loro, which documents the debauched lifestyle of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

There are quieter films, too, as well as pop culture crime comedies, one documenting the life and crimes of the mafia, a satirical comedy about Benito Mussolini, and an art movie exploring great Italian painter and inventor Leonardo da Vinci.

The Studio Italia Cinema Italiano Festival screens at Wellington's Empire Cinema from 5–18 November, 2020.