ICFF - Italian Contemporary Film Fest returns to the Distillery District bigger and better

 

The Italian Contemporary Film Festival (ICFF) Press Conference was held today at the Distillery District to unveil the plans for this years festival.  This festival really goes big and innovates when they try to do more every year.  This year has a huge logistic component with all kinds of things going on day and night.

The ICFF/Lavazza IncluCity as it's called Film Festival takes place from June 27 to July 21, 2023 at the Distillery District in Toronto for their second year.  They managed to find a way around the pandemic a couple of years ago when they held a Drive In Festival at Ontario Place.   Always ready to innovate and experiment to make it all come together.   This year the Distillery will be taken over for roughly a month of full programming with a stage being built for Music during the day and then the evening will take over with mostly Italian films but also other films from around the world such as India, France, Germany, Canada and more.

After the regular programming for the first time they are adding late night screenings of Horror films with their The Dark Side program which is handled by Horror expert Chris Alexander.  One of the films that will be shown is by David Cronenberg's son Brandon with his Infinity Pool (CAN).

The Opening Night film is called Freaks Out by Gabriele Mainetti.

The film I am looking forward to is Sugar and Stars/A La Belle Etoile Directed by Sebastien Tulard. Which will also coincide with chocolate at the festival.

Another noteable film is Perrugino a Documentary Directed by Giovanni Piscaglia about an influential Renaissance painter.

Another familiar musician will be in The Journey: A Music Special from Andrea Bocelli, Directed by Gaetano Morbioli, Paolo Sodi.

There is a really wide variety of programming with 50 films in this 12th edition with more activations such as Bastille Day events,  Sake Tasting event,  A Ghost tour of the Distillery, and a 60 minute Cinematic tour of all the films that were made at the Distillery.  I look forward to these events.

And also returning is 6ix Art Outdoor with a focus on local artists that will display in the galleries and around the Distillery district.

There's an AWA Music Showcase and there will also be a couple of Opera singers that will sing along with one of the films.  Music artists are from all over the GTA.

on July 22nd there is also a special "In Conversation with" ANNA FENDI at the Bell Lightbox at 6pm and the tickets are $32 and at 7:30 at the Ritz Carlton there is the Closing Gala for $275 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

Also featured at the festival will be Architecture and Design with special panels and screenings.

This festival is too huge for me to list all the highlights so I would suggest that you check out their website and book your tickets and make plans to sit in the sun and lounge on couches while watching a film and grabbing some food and drink.   Did I mention that Pizza Nova and Lavazza were their returning sponsors.

I haven't be able to attend the festival for the past couple of years but really hope I can spend as much time there this year as possible.  The festival is run by a terrific team of people who have an enormous amount of passion for all things film, culture and community.

Tickets are available for purchase now at https://icff.ca/.

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Visit the Distillery District for more information:  www.thedistillerydistrict.com