Now in its 36th year, Filmfest DC brings the finest in contemporary world cinema to the nation’s capital. Over the years, the festival has introduced over 1,000 feature and short films from over 55 countries to an ever-growing audience. Filmfest DC is an 11-day annual festival presenting more than 60 feature premieres, restored classics, and special events to the general public. The majority of Filmfest DC presentations are Washington, DC premieres.
The 36th Annual Washington, DC International Film Festival will be a hybrid presentation, inviting audience members back to the in-person theater movie-going experience. An online component will also be available allowing you to enjoy great films from the comfort of your own home.
This year we are co-presenting two Italian films: the US Premiere of Three Floors (Tre piani) by Nanni Moretti and The Right to Happiness (Il diritto alla felicità) by Claudio Rossi Massimi. Our two Italian films are offered in-person at Landmark’s E Street Cinema. Links to purchase tickets and more info available below.
DATES: April 15th to May 1st
FULL FESTIVAL PROGRAM: filmfestdc.org
Three Floors (Tre piani) by Nanni Moretti
A multi-tiered morality tale that poses complex questions, this latest work from Palme d’Or-winning director, writer, and actor Nanni Moretti is a network narrative in which every transgression holds the potential for transcendence. The ne’er-do-well son of two esteemed judges (Moretti and Margherita Buy), Andréa (Alessandro Sperduti) kills a pedestrian while swerving to avoid hitting Monica (Alba Rohrwacher), who is going into labor and is desperate for a ride to the hospital. Andréa winds up crashing his car into the living room of Lucio (RiccardScamarcio), who will soon face his own legal ordeal when his young daughter goes missing while being cared for by an elderly neighbor. Each of these characters inhabits the same Rome apartment complex. Years pass, paths cross, plots thicken, and one generation succeeds another. Only gradually, after much turmoil and hard-won forgiveness, will long-elusive truths finally come to light.—Toronto International Film Festival
LOCATION: Landmark’s E Street Cinema – 555 11th St NW, Washington, DC 20004
DATES: Sunday, April 24 at 5:00 PM & Saturday April 30 at 6:00 PM
Directed by Nanni Moretti
Italy, France, 2021 – 117 minutes
In Italian with English subtitles
The Right to Happiness (Il diritto alla felicità) by Claudio Rossi Massimi
The Right to Happiness centers on a small used book store in a small plaza in a small town with big vistas, somewhere in Italy. It sounds like a book lover’s fantasy, and maybe it is. The bookseller, Libero (Remo Girone), knows most of his rather eccentric customers and can barely bring himself to take their money (although fascists pay double). When a young boy, Essien (Didie Lorenz Tchumbu), an émigré from Burkina Faso, happens on the shop, Libero begins lending him books of increasing difficulty. From Pinocchio to Moby Dick, Essien can read as fast as Libero can lend, and the two form a bond over reading and meaning. “Books should be read twice,” Libero says. “Once to understand them, and once to think.” Life should probably be lived like that too, but the bookseller’s name means “free,” and freedom is what Libero bequeaths to Essien.—Judy Bloch
LOCATION: Landmark’s E Street Cinema – 555 11th St NW, Washington, DC 20004
DATES: Friday, April 22 at 8:00 PM & Sunday, April 24 at 7:15 PM
Directed by Claudio Rossi Massimi
Italy, 2021 – 80 minutes
In Italian with English subtitles