International New Cinema Festival

The International New Cinema Festival was begun in Pesaro in 1965, based on an inspiration of Lino Miccichè (who directed the event until 1982) and Bruno Torri. The Festival was subsequently directed by Marco Müller, Adriano Aprà, Andrea Martini and since 2000 has been in the hands of Giovanni Spagnoletti.
The members of the non-profit Pesaro New Cinema Foundation are Marche Region, Province of Pesaro and Urbino, and the Municipality of Pesaro. The Festival traditionally receives the support of the Ministry for Culture which since the year 2001 has judged it to be an event of national interest. And since 1999 it has been partly funded by the European Union Media programme, clear confirmation of the international character of this event.

A Festival devoted to New Cinema
The Festival was intended as a “shop window” for new cinema. In its early years it introduced and made known all the main aspects of the “Nouvelle Vague” cinema of the 1960s and 70s, those new forms of cinema which flourished in eastern and western Europe and in Latin America – including Cuban cinema – and in the East, a retrospective of the new currents in Japanese cinema. The Festival has featured previews of works by authors who would go on to become internationally famous: Nagisa Oshima, Lino Brocka, Glauber Rocha, Ray Guerra, Raoul Ruiz, among others; and has also hosted historic meetings and debates with the participation of personalities such as Roland Barthes, Christian Metz, Umberto Eco and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
More recently the Festival has leaned towards the discovery of emerging cinema, bringing into the limelight a number of nations including Spain, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Iran, and has also explored European intercultural “métissage” cinema. Great attention is reserved for authors experimenting with new languages and personal forms of expression, from Chantal Akerman to Michael Snow.

Italian cinema and the international retrospective
Since 1988 a Special Event devoted to Italian Cinema offers a panoramic overview of both recent productions and works by the great masters of our cinema, from Vittorio De Sica to Mario Monicelli, from Ettore Scola to Ermanno Olmi. From 1982 to 2004 the International Retrospective Event has featured important aspects of cinema history: from the American studio system to the world of animated cinema.

The audience
Films shown at the Festival attract audiences of over thirty thousand people. The Festival is attended by about three hundred journalists and other media operators, including many foreign journalists who highlight the event in their own countries. Independent producers and distributors also take part in the Festival. 

Publication
Every year the Festival publishes a large catalogue and a number of monograph studies. These are collections of essays and documents aimed at increasing knowledge and appreciation of the films and types of cinema presented in the Festival.

www.pesarofilmfest.it