The 2019 Studio Italia Cinema Italiano Festival comes to Wairarapa

My big Gay Italian wedding.

“La famiglia è il centro di noi” Family is at the heart of us

Wairarapa will host the Italian Film Festival from the 8 th to 15 th August at Circus Cinema in Martinborough, when it continues its seven month, 15 venue tour of New Zealand.

For the 2019 Festival, director and curator Paolo Rotondo has selected a lineup of comedies, dramas, documentaries and cherished classics that all have family at their core, infused with the myriad of forms of how ‘famiglia’ shapes everything in Italian culture.

“For millennia, family has been an important social construct in Italian society and this year’s Festival celebrates family in all its manifestations. It is perhaps my own perspective, or age and stage, that has allowed me to harvest this theme from so many films.”

“I believe that the attitudes and values around family remain one of the great cultural assets of Italian society. The curation this year, is a wonderful exploration of ‘famiglia’ in so many different ways.”

From director Gabriele Muccino’s impressive ensemble piece ‘A Casa Tutti Bene / There’s No Place Like Home’ and ‘Dogman’ from one of Italy’s most exciting filmmakers Matteo Garrone, to Fellini’s remastered classic ‘8½’ and Alessandro Genovesi’s lively comedy ‘Puio Baciare Lo Sposo / My Big Gay Italian Wedding’’, the Festival has literally something for everyone in the family.

2019 sees Studio Italia sign on as the Festival’s new principal sponsor.

“Italian cinema has always celebrated design, architecture, style and passion, and at Studio Italia we share those attributes by representing the finest in Italian furniture design and craftsmanship. Just as cinema can stimulate our minds and lives, the design of beautiful interior pieces can bring us pleasure and elevate our personal spaces,” says Studio Italia owner Valeria Carbonaro-Laws.

The Festival began its season in Christchurch last month, and moves through Nelson, Tauranga, Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa, Arrowtown, Matakana, Cambridge and Taupo before reaching Auckland on 17 September. Wellington follows, with the final screenings in New Plymouth starting on 8 November.