The RIFF (Roma Independent Film Festival), supported by Rome’s Municipal Department of Cultural Policies, will officially open its 5th edition on 7 April. The event will close on 14 April.

RIFF is becoming more and more internationally oriented: the 2006 edition is especially focussed on independent film-making, characterised once again by its strong interest in ‘beyond borders’ cinema. Indeed, the programme features 5 film reviews dedicated to as many countries (Norway, Canada, Spain, France, Hungary) and enhanced during special event nights.

The festival will display a selection (among the over 1,000 works sent from 70 countries) of 75 FILMS including long features, short features and documentaries.

Several Italian and foreign first films among the long features: the world première Il Segreto di Rahil (Rahil’s Secret) by Cinzia Bomoll, her first long feature, starring Lorenza Indovino and Giorgio Faletti, Elisabetta Rocchetti; Three Days Of Anarchy by Vito Zagarrio, starring Enrico Lo Verso and Nino Frassica; Short Order by Anthony Byrne, a first film starring Vanessa Redgrave and John Hurt; Black Brush by Rolland Vranik, first film and winner as the Best Movie at the 2005 Budapest Hungarian Film Week; El Taxista ful by Jordì Sol, awarded by Altadis’ New Directors Awards Jury at the 53rd edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival; Ra Choi by Michael Frank, first film and Best Movie at the 2005 Australian Writers Guild Awgie Awards; OFF Screen by Pietre Kuijpers, winner of the Grand Prix des Amériques at Montreal’s World Film Festival and official nominee of the Rotterdam Film Festival; A New Wave by Jason Carvey, a world première; Self Medicated by Monty Lapica, first film and Best Movie at the Santa Fe Film Festival; Dreaming Lhasa by Ritu Sarin starring Jampa Kalsang, shown at the Toronto International Film Festival and The Forbidden Charter by Fariboz Kamkari, an Italy/France/Iran co-production presented at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Moreover and for the first time in Italy, the audience in Rome will have the chance to watch the film “Kissed By Winter”, one of the Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language Movie, representing Norway. A unique opportunity to fall in love with Sara Johnsen’s essential and straightforward language; the director, a guest at the festival, will be awarded the NEW VISION PRIZE, now in its second edition.

A special night during the Festival will be devoted to Human Rights, with the screening of several documentaries made by some NGOs and non-profits, including Médecins Sans Frontières, Terres des Hommes and the Italian Council for Refugees (CIR).

The 2006 RIFF AWARDS (for a total value of € 50,000.00) will be presented for Best Documentary, Best Feature Film (Proxima Award) and Best Short Film (and once again, the Luce Award, consisting in a contract for theatre distribution in Italy, and the Kodak Award – 1,500 metres of negative film, worth € 1,500.00 – for Best Italian Short).