The Lavazza Italian Film Festival screening at Palace Byron Bay Cinema from 9 to 15 October promises to be a wildly exuberant celebration of Italian culture, with a program of 16 films that run the gamut from drama to comedy, romance to adventure.
This year’s opening night film Marina is a delightful biopic that tells the true story of Rocco Granata, the much-loved singer, songwriter and accordionist, from his early life as a child whose father left the poverty of southern Italy to work as a miner in Belgium, to Rocco’s emergence as a worldwide musical phenomenon with his 1959 song Marina, one of the biggest international hits of that era. The cinema will be serving drinks and appetisers prior to and after the film, while patrons at the after-party will also be entertained by local musician Luke Vassella.
Palace film festival closing night films are often cinema classics and this year that slot will be amply filled by Marriage Italian Style, Out of the Blue, Darker Than Midnight, Incompresa and Quiet Bliss. Lavazza Italian Film Festival will screen at Palace Byron Bay Cinema on Thursday and run till Wednesday 15 October Full program details and ticket information available at www.italianfilmfestival.com.au, or at Palace Byron Bay box office.