„Trieste Science + Fiction/International Festival of Science-Fiction is a multidisciplinary event that explores the many worlds of the fantasy and science fiction genres, focussing on the experimental languages and new technologies of cinema, television, visual arts and entertainment.
The festival as we know it today is the natural progression of The Trieste International Film Festival of Science Fiction that started in the 1960s. Every November, the celebration brings a fantastic atmosphere to the city of Trieste, with cult movies, previews, big names, young talents, retrospectives, classics and rare material of the genre on show. The festival is also widely recognised as a launch pad for up and coming directors and as a showcase for the new trends of sci-fi, fantasy and horror cinema.
The International Science Fiction Film Festival’s first edition, in 1963, started the history of a revolutionary event bringing a whole bunch of celebrated international stars to the city of Trieste. In those years, the festival saw the participation of Arthur C. Clarke, Roger Corman, Riccardo Freda, Forrest J. Ackerman, Umberto Eco and Brian Aldiss, among others.
A group of “young visual poetry artists”, as Ungaretti called them in a cable he sent wishing luck to the Festival, coordinated at that time La Cappella Underground Research and Experimentation Centre. In the following years, they would turn the city of Trieste into a unique stage for genre films, until 1982, when the last edition took place.
In the year 2000, La Cappella Underground decided to pick up the tradition of the Festival and its innovative impulse on independent film productions, premieres and rarities with a new event called Science plus Fiction.
Recent celebrity guests include Terry Gilliam, Dario Argento, Pupi Avati, Lamberto Bava, the director of Blue Brothers John Landis, Christiane Kubrick, cartoonists Moebius and Enki Bilal, Joe Dante, Roger Corman, Christopher Lee, the Godfather of zombies Roger Romero and the creator of E.T. Carlo Rambaldi.
Four prizes are awarded at each edition of the festival:
Urania d’Argento, a lifetime achievement award presented to an important personality of the fantastic genre, in collaboration with Mondadori publishing house
Premio Asteroide, awarded to the best international film in competition
Méliès d’Argent, awarded to the best European film in competition. The winner of this prize goes on to compete for the Méliès d’Or, in competition against winners of the Méliès d’Argent at the other festivals of the E.F.F.F.F – European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation
Méliès d’Argent, awarded to the best European short in competition.
Trieste Science + Fiction is about more than just cinema though. Recent editions of the festival have included specialist sections and events, exhibitions, concerts, performances, talks and conferences to an audience around 10 000 people each year.
Future Studies Encounters (Incontri di futurologia):
http://www.sciencefictionfestival.org/incontri-di-futurologia/
Since 2005, Science+Fiction has been part of the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation (www.melies.org), a network including all the main events in the field and aiming at the promotion of European genre productions on a big scale.
http://www.sciencefictionfestival.org/en/news/
http://sciencefictionfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/TS+F13_programma_web.pdf
Quotations & pics © Trieste Science+Fiction Films Festival
