The Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss, the songwriter and perennial Oscar bridesmaid Diane Warren and Matteo Garrone, the director of this year’s best international feature Oscar-nominated Italian film Io Capitano, will all be honored on Sunday night during the opening ceremony of the 19th Los Angeles, Italia Film, Fashion and Art Festival at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatres, exactly one week before the 96th Academy Awards take place just down the street.
The festival, which is backed by Italy’s Ministry of Culture, will run through Saturday, March 9, and feature 112 film screenings (47 in movie theaters and 65 on the online platform eventive.org). This year’s edition will be hosted by one Italian screen legend, Franco Nero (as well as Italian actress/model Antonella Salvucci), and is dedicated to another, the late Marcello Mastroianni, whose centenary it coincides with, as well as the late Italian playwright Eduardo de Filippo.
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Notable guests expected to be in attendance at the fest include this edition’s festival chairs, producer Raffaella de Laurentiis and director Michelle Danner; Oscar winners Nick Vallelonga (Green Book), Barry Morrow (Rain Man) and Bobby Moresco (Crash); the stars of Io Capitano, Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall; Luca Barbareschi, Francesco Mandelli, Sofia Milos, Edoardo Costa, Luigi Grispello and Massimo Zeri.
“We are so proud to be the longest-running and most prolific Italian event in the world with regard to coproductions and the promotion of our peninsula in the entertainment industry,” festival founder Pascal Vicedomini said in a statement. “Since 2006, we have been pioneers in the promotion of major Italian movies and artists in Hollywood and we will enthusiastically continue the work of our legendary cofounders Lina Wertmüller and Marina Cicogna, who are forever in our hearts.”
