(16 March, 2017) The Sofia International Film Festival (March 9 - 19) showcases films from all over the worlds. This year’s 21st edition pays a tribute to Carlo Di Palma, a great director of photography who passed away in 2004 in Rome. Di Palma left a profound mark in the history Italian and world cinema. Over the course of his career, he has worked with the greatest Italian directors (such as Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti, Germi, Monicelli, Scola, Bertolucci, Petri, and especially Michelangelo Antonioni). In the United States, he was Woody Allen’s cinematographic eye for 18 years. Di Palma also directed three films that featured Monica Vitti and will be paid homage to with a screening of a documentary film titled “Acqua e zucchero: Carlo Di Palma, I Colori Della Vita” by Fariborz Kamkari. The documentary tells the life of the famous Italian film director and also travels through the history of 100 of the best of films in Italian cinema on which Di Palma collaborated on from the 1960s to the 1990s. The screening was organised by the Sofia International Film Festival in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of Sofia will take place on Saturday March 18 at the ‘Casa del Cinema’. Among the guests are Di Palman’s widow, Adriana Chiesa, who is travelling the world speaking with colleagues and fans of her late husband about his unique way of making a film. (red)

THE FESTIVAL

The Sofia International Festival (March 9-19) hosts numerous feature films, documentaries and short films of all genres from all over the world. The festival, recognised by FIAPF, is reserved to a director’s debut or second film. In Parallel to the Sofia International Film Festival are also the Sofia Meetings which comprise of a market of projects for debut, second, and third film with pitching sessions and “Balkan screenings” devoted to local films. The Sofia Meetings are organised with the support of the ‘Media’ programme.