Ischia

“Italy is my favorite country and the Ischia Global Fest is the world event of the summer: a perfect combination of content and quality of life. I am happy to be the chairman and to have worked with Pascal Vicedomini in order to make this edition even richer and to promote your country throughout the world through the medium of film. With Oliver Stone, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Hilary Swank, Ben Kingsley, Laura Dern, Sheryl Crow, Gustavo Santaolalla, Andrea Bocelli, and many other friends, for one week we will make Ischia a great laboratory of ideas and creativity.” With these words screenwriter, producer, and director Paul Haggis (2006 Oscar winner for the film Crash), kicked off the fifth Ischia Global Film & Music Fest at the Regina Isabella Hotel in Lacco Ameno. After tonight’s special preview evening with Julio Iglesias, the festival officially begins tomorrow, July 9, with a special screening of the Romanian film California Dreamin, winner of the “Un Certain Regard” section at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

Paul Haggis has just finished his latest film In the Valley of Elah (starring Charlize Theron, Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon), which may be in the running for the next Venice Film Festival. Haggis, who is considered the “King Midas of Hollywood,” followed the success of Million Dollar Baby and 007 -Casino Royale by producing Flags of our Fathers for Clint Eastwood and the masterpiece Letters from Iwo Jima.

Chairman Paul Haggis is assisted by Marina Cicogna and Franco Nero, and for the musical section,Tony Renis. Festival godmothers are actresses Clotilde Courau (princess of Savoy) and Anna Falchi.

The Ischia Global Fest is also awaiting Stephen Frears, who will be honored in the name of Luchino Visconti by Minister of Culture Francesco Rutelli. Other guests who will arrive are directors Alfonso Cuaròn, Bille August, Giuseppe Tornatore, and Emanuele Crialese, screenwriter William Monahan, actors Laura Dern, Treat Wiliams, Ioan Gruffudd, Laura Morante, Michele Placido, and Raoul Bova, producers Aurelio De Laurentiis and Mark Canton and singers and musicians like Laura Pausini and Luis Bacalov .

After India, China, Russia and Germany, this year’s featured country is Brazil with screenings, many protagonists to meet, and an exhibit on nineteen films from the creative movement “La Retomada”. Along with 11 absolute previews, every night the best films of the season will be featured, as well as meetings with stars, which are open to the public in the theaters of Ischia Porto and Forio d’Ischia.

The Ischia Global Fest, founded and produced by Pascal Vicedomini with the International Art Academy of Ischia and the Tourist Board of Ischia and Procida, is organized with the support of the Film Board of the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Regional Ministry for Tourism of the Campania region in collaboration with Kimbo coffee, Fiuggi mineral water, and the Venice Casino, with the participation of Cinecittà Holding, and the Chamber of Commerce of Naples and Medmar.