Hotelrome.net Blog : A guide to news and events in Rome

Rome independent film festival RIFF, the Rome Independent Film Festival, is the annual must event for the friends of the independent films! This year’s edition is going to happen in April, 13th-20th, and is going to present more than 80 films from 70 different countries, all premiers of course! In addition, there will be seminars on cinematography and the possibility to view the first films of young Italian directors not nominated for the awards.

The event is organised by the association RIFF, founded by Fabio Ferrari in 2001 with the intention of promoting the independent film production. The first festival took place in February 2001 and this year’s edition is the 7th time the event is organised.

Awards are going to be granted for example for the best long and short film, the best documentary and the best script. The event is sponsored by the city of Rome, the European Commission, the Amnesty International, a number of foreign embassies in Rome and amongst others, the “Coming Soon� and “Roma c’è� magazines, Kodak, and partnered by several same spirited festivals on abroad.

The festival of this year will take place in three different locations: the Hotel Claridge at Viale Liegi 62 and at the Cinema Embassy at Via Stoppani 7, both close to each other. The area can be reached by the bus number 360 leaving from the Termini station. See the location on a Rome city map. You can view the program on the site of the Association RIFF.

To book your accommodation in Rome during the festival try hotels near the Termini station in order to be well connected with the head quarters of the festival: the hostel and hotel Des Artistes in rome centre offer accommodation for all budgets, and the Nice Hotel and hotel Carlito’s Way are other inexpensive options with good-value.

Italy and Rome in particular are often seen through the Dolce Vita, a way of life but also the very famous film by Federico Fellini released in 1960 that counters in a colorful fashion Rome in the sixties.
Our hero, Marcello Mastroianni plays a roman paparazzo, whose real dream is to become a writer. He is to pick up a famous movie star at the Ciampino airport, Anita Ekberg, and ends up showing her around the Eternal City at night.After a press conference and a wild night out between St Peter’s and the night club Caracalla’s and eventually a bath in the Trevi Fountain, and finally they get back to their central hotel where a furious boyfriend expects Sylvia (Anita Ekberg).

Marcello has a complicated lovelife himself and, tired of his shallow life he decides to try to find some peace and goes in the countryside near Terni and begins to write. But he is quickly sucked back to where belong the excesses of the high society, and after a night at a party in Fregene, the beach of Rome he seems to realize again he is unhappy. La Dolce Vita shows us the “far niente” of Via Veneto among the rich and famous. For the budget traveler our Via Veneto B&B Jonella is the ideal central hotel to book for your stay.