Rome rolls out red carpet for new film festival

ROME—Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman opens Rome's first international film festival on Friday, kicking off nine days of movies that many in Italy see as a direct challenge to Venice's venerable Lido competition.
Kidman stars in Steven Shainberg's "Fur," the partly fictional story of controversial American photographer Diane Arbus seen through her imaginary friendship with a neighbor, played by Robert Downey Jr.
In all, the festival will screen nearly 100 films, mixing big U.S. productions with European and Asian art house movies plus several retrospectives paying tribute to Italian cinema, as well as one dedicated to actor Sean Connery.
The "Festa del Cinema" is the brainchild of Rome's mayor Walter Veltroni, a movie buff who has long cherished the idea of boosting Italy's capital -- home to the famed Cinecitta studios -- with a high-profile film event.
But that has not gone down well with organizers of Venice's film festival, the world's oldest.
Both events have a similar budget of around 10 million euros ($12.5 million), but unlike Venice, Rome's funds are almost entirely private.
Commentators say the two festivals are bound to compete for films and sponsorship money, possibly to the detriment of both.
Marco Mueller, director of the Venice festival, recently said films screened in Rome were leftovers "neither we nor Cannes wanted."
Veltroni insists that his is a "different creature" with a more populist approach than the traditionally high-brow Venice event.
"We will have a jury made up not of an American director and a German director of photography, but made up of 50 people who have been to the cinema a lot in the last year," Veltroni told Reuters in an interview.
"It will be a party, a down-to-earth party with an eye turned toward the spectators. We have sold 35,000 tickets in just a few days. It will be taking place throughout the city ... with great attention toward youth," he said.
The 16 films in the actual competition have a distinct European, art house flavor and include no U.S. titles.
But the contest is likely to take a back seat to a series of special events and screenings which include the presentation of Martin Scorsese's new thriller "The Departed," which has already hit cinemas in several countries.
Other celebrities expected to hit Rome's red carpet are Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Gere, Viggo Mortensen, Monica Bellucci -- who stars in two films showing at the festival -- and Harrison Ford.—Agencies