Rome Film Festival opens 21st edition with Paolo Genovese film

The Rome International Film Festival's organizers selected director Paolo Genovese's film "The Noise of New Things" to open the twenty-first edition, which launched Tuesday evening and runs until October 25.

The opening ceremony, held before the film screening in the main hall of the "Auditorium" complex in the Italian capital, saw a notable attendance by Italian and international film stars as well as filmmakers and critics.

The opening film is being shown in the "Wide Audience" section, and director Paolo Genovese is internationally known for the film "Perfect Strangers," which has been remade in many versions around the world, including an Arabic version that gained wide distribution.

The new film tells the story of three couples who do not know each other; each lives inside a cage they built for themselves out of fear of the unknown and restrains their emotions within calm, reassuring boundaries, before an unexpected event brings them together and forces them to rearrange their lives and reassess what they are going through. The cast includes several prominent Italian actors, among them Stefano Accorsi, Claudia Pandolfi and Vittoria Puccini.

The current edition's program includes tributes to a number of artistic figures, among them Oscar-winning composer Nicola Piovani and British producer Tessa Ross.

The Rome festival is one of the most prominent cinematic events of the European autumn, combining crowd-pleasing films and independent art works, making it a platform for launching films ahead of the awards season.