Laceno d'Oro Film Festival - Avellino - Italy

Laceno d'Oro Festival Internazionale del Cinema- Avellino - Italy

LACENO D'ORO FILM FESTIVAL
Laceno D'oro is among Italy's oldest and most important film festivals, born more than 50 years ago.
This Festival stands out among others for its international commitment, its serious attention to social issues and the promotion of "thinking" movies, which are often met with great approval and awards worldwide, but left out of the great film distribution. In this sense, this year's edition holds by the original purpose of the Festival. The program which includes events with important and rewarded artists, several screenings of the most significant independent, "research" movies, and a big array of events which will express the "Cinema effect" at its best.

HISTORY.
Laceno d'oro was born in 1959, as a festival dedicated to neorealism, thanks to two young intellectuals from Irpinia, Camillo Marino and Giacomo d'Onofrio and their strong faith in their dreams and the tutelary deity of Pier Paolo Pasolini.
The "Camillo Marino" award, was initially supported by "Cinemasud"magazine and tied its destiny to one of the most beautiful place in Avellino area. In fact, this event was conceived to promote Laceno's tourist development and it was meant to be a reward for the best Neorealism-inspired movies. Since that year, till 1988, 28 editions followed one another, and only the big earthquake prevented it from taking place in 1980.
After its early times in Bagnoli, Laceno d'oro festival "moved" in Avellino and its surrounding area, where it reached success and lived its most beautiful period, between the second half of the'60s and the early '70s. It would be difficult to understand the student protest in Irpinia without this significant and fruitful entity which became a hotbed of cultural growth, a chance to embrace freedom of thought and intellectual emancipation. This was made possible also through the circulation of civil and social commitment movies, Eastern Europe filmmaking, as well as works from India and Vietnam, Latin America and the Third World.
From then on, Laceno d'oro began to identify itself as a real film festival where interesting debates took place after any screening.
The Jury was made up by the leading figures of journalism, cinema and literature: Pier Paolo Pasolino (who accepted the founders' invitation and gave a key input to the festival), Domenico Rea, Cesare Zavattini, Carlo Lizzani, Marcello Gatti, Lina Wertmuller, Giuliano Montaldo, Luigi Zampa, Tinto Brass and many others filmmakers and intellectuals.
Year after year, several changes made the festival improve: in 1969 a new section dedicated to documentaries was included, the so-called "Rassegna del passo ridotto Laceno d'oro", on the 24th edition it was the time for a "mini festival" dedicated to young people, which screenings were conceived for junior high school students. Later on, exhibitions and the first avant-garde theatre festival found a place in the festival.
Successful artists and, more often, emerging filmmakers and young actors were rewarded for their work. Laceno d'oro was referred to as the "lucky award" and the list of the winners' names is the evidence. In fact, famous international filmmakers (Antonioni, Pontecorvo, Taviani brothers and Scola) obtained their first official award in Irpinia, before Venice and Cannes.
The Festival hosted movies from all over the world, with a special consideration for Eastern Europe and Third World filmmaking and reached an international dimension.
Camillo Marino award derived from that positive season. Since 2001, this awards ceremony is organized by ImmaginAzione, an association for film culture promotion, which have given new life to Laceno d'oro festival and introduced a new prize named after Giacomo d'Onofrio.
From 2001 to date, many influential artists received the prize: Ettore Scola, Gillo Pontecorvo, Aurelio Grimaldi, Antonietta De Lillo, Vincenzo Marra, Ken Loach, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Marco Bellocchio, Laurent Cantet, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Olivier Assayas. The audience attended these masterpieces'screenings during exciting evening events.