on LGBTQI+ issues directed by Vladimir Luxuria

In Turin, from 16 to 21 April – at the Cinema Massimo, the multiplex of the National Cinema Museum – the 39th edition of the Lovers Film Festival will be staged, the oldest Italian festival on LGBTQI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans , queer and intersexual) directed by Vladimir Luxuria and founded by Giovanni Minerba and Ottavio Mai which continues the three-year journey that will lead it to celebrate its fortieth anniversary next year.

53 films programmed, 4 world premieres, 6 international, 3 European and 28 Italian (see attached programme). The only Italian screening of the documentary by Carlos López Estrada and Zac Manuel Lil Nas

“We are pleased that Vladimir Luxuria is hosting the Lovers Film Festival in this, its last edition before its fortieth anniversary – underline Enzo Ghigo and Domenico De Gaetano, respectively president and director of the National Cinema Museum – It is she who, with her enthusiasm and sensitivity, is leading the festival towards a goal that confirms it as a fundamental event for an authentic, equal and sensitive representation of the needs of the LGBTQI+ community. This year too, the selection is international, fully embracing the festival’s historic vocation to give voice to cinematographic products from all over the world. There are two national productions in selection and we trust that over time this number will increase to reflect the plurality of artistic perspectives and perspectives that express the theme in Italian cinema and make it a vehicle of inalienable rights”.

Vladimir Luxuria

For the fifth year, and until the festival’s fortieth birthday, Lovers will be directed by Vladimir Luxuria, activist, writer, television personality, actress, singer and playwright, also famous for her political activity. The director will be supported by Angelo Acerbi, assistant director and selection manager and by the selectors Elisa Cuter and Alessandro Uccelli.

“This year, in a climate of hatred and war, we have decided to respond with love which, in fact, is also the theme of our guiding image, signed by Valenti Stecchi. A kiss at the cinema, the symbolic gesture of love. A kiss between two men that moves a man and a woman who are watching the film. The demonstration that when love is told well it moves everyone’s feelings, then we couldn’t help but dedicate this year’s festival to Sandra Milo who will look at us from a cloud surrounded by angels thinking ‘don’t do this, don’t suffer , I am fine‘ – declares Vladimir Luxuria – she was one of the nicest people I’ve met in show business. Always available. Always energetic. It is not just the loss of a great actress but of a point of reference for the world of world cinema”.

The opening night

The festival will be inaugurated on Tuesday evening at 6.30 pm in Mole Antonelliana by the 2024 godmother Maria Grazia Cucinotta, the protagonist of a talk with Vladimir Luxuria. Both, again on the debut day of the Festival but at Cinema Massimo, will be protagonists of the evening before the opening film (8.30 pm at Cinema Massimo in Sala Cabiria). The national president of Arcigay Natascia Maesi will also speak.

Drag Queen Tekemaya – singer and vocalist for Muccassassina, Mammamia, Gorgeus, and many other clubs, who represented Italy in Brussels, at Cantando per l’Europa, between 1999 and 2001 – will be a guest, both in Mole Antonelliana both at the Cinema Massimo, as well as on all the following evenings.

The opening film will be Duino by Juan Pablo Di Pace (USA/Argentina/Italy, 2024, 108 min.) There is a sacredness in falling in love for the first time: an often all-encompassing event that we can no longer relive once it’s over. Matias, a forty-year-old Argentine director, is busy with an unfinished film inspired by his first love: the subject is Alexander, a Swedish friend he met at an international school in Istria in the nineties. When Alexander is suddenly expelled, Matias must deal with emotions undeclared to the world and to himself. A meta-cinematic coming-of-age story, based on a true story. The director will be present in the room.