A Brief History of EuropaCinema

EuropaCinema, the European Film Festival, was conceived and founded in Rimini in 1984 by Felice Laudadio, the director of the TaorminaFilmFest since 1999. He directed the Venice Film Festival in 1997 and 1998, and was the President of Cinecittà Holding from 1999 to 2002

EuropaCinema’s logotype and the first poster were conceived by Federico Fellini and successively realised by famous names such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra, Ettore Scola, Marcello Mastroianni, and Ingmar Bergman.
Due to its immediate extraordinary success, EuropaCinema became at once one of the most famous and known festivals in Europe, considered by producers, distributors and authors as a valid alternative to the Venice Film Festival. In September 1989, the festival finally moved to Viareggio, the ideal setting for such a prestigious and celebrated event.

At EuropaCinema, hundreds of Italian and foreign premieres were screened. Among them, the most significant and well-known movies of all time, such as Another Time, Another Place and 1984 by Michael Radford, Benvenuta, Babel Opéra and L’oeuvre au noir by André Delvaux, Local Hero and Comfort and Joy by Bill Forsyth, Die Macht der Gefühle by Alexander Kluge, À nos amours by Maurice Pialat, Die Unendliche Geschichte by Wolfgang Petersen, Loose Connections by Richard Eyre, Document “Fanny och Alexander” and Karins Ansikte by Ingmar Bergman, My Beautiful Laundrette by Stephen Frears, L’Éveillée du Pont de l’Alma by Raul Ruiz, Calamari Union, Varjoja paratiisissa and I Hired a Contract Killer by Aki Käurismaki, The Killing Fields by Roland Joffé, No Man’s Land by Alain Tanner, Paris Texas and Trilogy of Until the End of the World by Wim Wenders, Péril en la demeure by Michel Deville, Taxidi sta Kithira, O Melissokomos and To Vlemma tou Odyssea by Theo Angelopoulos, Bittere Ernte and Europa Europa by Agnieskza Holland, Im Innern des Wals and Uomini (Männer) by Doris Dörrie, Zuckerbaby by Percy Adlon, The Good Father, Into the West and Quattro matrimoni e un funerale (Four Weddings and a Funeral) by Mike Newell, Jean de Florette by Claude Berri, Matador and Donne sull’orlo di una crisi di nervi by Pedro Almodóvar, 37,2° le matin by Jean-Jacques Beineix, Um adeus português by João Bothelo, Adi Vasfiye by Atif Yilmaz, Offret by Andrei Tarkovskij, Camera con Vista (A Room with a View) by James Ivory, Thérèse by Alain Cavalier, Amorosa by Mai Zetterling, Angustia by Bigas Luna, Il pranzo di Babette by Gabriel Axel, 84 Charing Cross Road by David Jones, I Photografia by Nicos Papatakis. Furthermore, Ormens väg på hälleberget by Bo Widerberg, De Wisselwachter by Jos Stelling, Sid and Nancy by Alex Cox, El viaje a ninguna parte by Fernando Fernán Gómez, Welcome in Vienna by Axel Corti, Pokayaniye by Tengiz Abuladze, Distant Voices, Still Lives by Terence Davies, Felix by Helma Sanders-Brahms, Helke Sander, Margarethe von Trotta and Christel Buschmann, Katinka by Max von Sydow, Le Maître de musique by Gérard Corbiau, Nuovo Cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe Tornatore, I ragazzi di via Panisperna by Gianni Amelio, Hope and Glory by John Boorman, The Dead by John Huston, Mignon è partita by Francesca Archibugi, The Adventures of Baron Mûnchausen by Terry Gilliam, Hareba i Gogi by Georgij Shengelaja, Stan Posiadania by Krzysztof Zanussi, Je suis le seigneur du château by Régis Wargnier, Strapless by David Hare, La vie et rien d’autre by Bertrand Tavernier, Ay, Carmela! by Carlos Saura, Docteur Petiot by Christian de Chalonge, Gavre Princip by Peter Patzak, la Trilogia Napló apámnak, anyámank by Márta Mészáros, Kopytem sem, kopytem tam by Vera Chytilova, Italia-Germania 4-3 by Andrea Barzini, La settimana della sfinge by Daniele Luchetti, Il settimo continente and Benny’s Video by Michael Haneke, Monsieur Hire by Patrice Leconte, El Sueño del mono loco and Belle Époque by Fernando Trueba, Sindrome astenica by Kira Muratova, Homo Faber by Volker Schlöndorff, Paris s’éveille and Une nouvelle vie by Olivier Assayas, Zitti e Mosca by Alessandro Benvenuti, La domenica specialmente by Barilli, Bertolucci, Giordana and Tornatore, Europa and Le onde del destino by Lars von Trier, Divertimenti della vita privata by Cristina Comencini, Toto le hèros by Jaco van Dormael, Merci la vie by Bertrand Blier, Life is Sweet by Mike Leigh, The Miracle e The Crying Game by Neil Jordan, O sangue by Pedro Costa, Amantes by Vicente Aranda, Après l’amour by Diane Kurys, Nessuno by Francesco Calogero, Trahir by Radu Mihaileanu, Un coeur en hiver by Claude Sautet, Balanta by Luciane Pintilie, La classe aux papillons by Otar Iosseliani, Orlando by Sally Potter, Tre colori: blu, bianco, rosso by Krzysztof Kieslowski, In the name of the father by Jim Sheridan, Ladybird, Ladybird and Land and Freedom by Ken Loach, Il sole anche di notte by Nikita Mikhalkov, Smoking/No smoking by Alain Resnais, Senza pelle by Alessandro D’Alatri, Before the Rain by Milcko Manchevski, Zeit des Zorns and Das Versprechen by Margarethe von Trotta, Butterfly Kiss by Michael Winterbottom, La Haine by Mathieu Kassovitz, Le Rendez-vous de Paris and Conte d’été by Eric Rohmer, Funny Bones by Peter Chelsom, Priest by Antonia Bird, Trainspotting by Danny Boyle and Run by Akira Kurosawa who, like several authors before him, preferred to present the world-premiere of his film in Viareggio instead of the Venice Film Festival.

At the festival, a conspicuous series of hommages and tributes were dedicated to celebrated screen-players: Franco Solinas, Jean-Claude Carrière, Rafael Azcona, Cesare Zavattini, Harold Pinter, Suso Cecchi d’Amico, Jorge Semprun, Vasco Pratolini and Gérard Brach - illustrious directors: Vittorio De Sica, Edgar Reitz, Ermanno Olmi, Mario Monicelli, Tengiz Abuladze, Wim Wenders, Herbert Achternbusch, Sergio Citti, Federico Fellini, Mario Soldati, Ingmar Bergman - famous producers: Franco Cristaldi and Mario Cecchi Gori - as well as to female directors from the Eastern European Countries, to British Renaissance, the German revival of cinema, the new Scandinavian cinema, authors from Emilia-Romagna and actors from Tuscany, to films realised in the most prestigious European schools of cinema, to European film archives, the Studios of Tirrenia, Viareggio in movies, the European roots of American cinema, etc.

Many European film-makers have been at the festival as jury from 1984 to 1996: Paulo Rocha, Ola Solum, Lea Massari, Michael White, André Delvaux, Mario Monicelli, Anja Breien, Peter Lilienthal, Franco Brusati, Imanol Arias, Reinhardt Hauff, Alexandr Adabashyan, Michael Radford, Nick Powell, Giuliana De Sio, Gian Maria Volonté, Ermanno Olmi, Ben Kingsley, Michael Haneke, Istvan Szabó, Ettore Scola, Rüdiger Vogler, Sabine Azéma, just to mention some of the most famous among them.

In the course of the years, Felice Laudadio awarded some of the most famous European film-makers in Rimini and Viareggio with the EuropaCinema prizes for artistic excellence, all designed by Federico Fellini for the special event and realised in platinum by a sponsor. Among them: Theo Angelopoulos, Michelangelo Antonioni, Bernd Eichinger, Tonino Guerra, Joris Ivens, David Puttnam, Gian Maria Volonté, Luis Berlanga, Jean-Claude Carrière, André Delvaux, Carlo di Palma, Theo Hinz, Manoel de Oliveira, Ermanno Olmi, Irene Papas, Serge Silberman, Rafael Azcona, Franco Cristaldi, Erland Josephson, Charlotte Rampling, Ettore Scola, Margarethe von Trotta, Tengiz Abuladze, Mario Monicelli, Philippe Noiret, Elias Querejeta, Monica Vitti, Fanny Ardant, Suso Cecchi D’Amico, Roberto Cicutto, Sergio Leone, Marcello Mastroianni, Ennio Morricone, Age, Bruno Ganz, Alexandre Mnouchkine, Furio Scarpelli, Hanna Schygulla, Paolo e Vittorio Taviani, Vittorio Gassman, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jeremy Thomas, Tonino Delli Colli, Nastassja Kinski, Mario Cecchi Gori, Roman Vlad, Gérard Brach, Sven Nykvist, Fernando Rey, David Robinson, Jorge Semprun, Ingrid Thulin, Armando Trovajoli, Wim Wenders, Jeremy Irons, Eleni Karaindrou, Tullio Kezich, Robi Müller, Gillo Pontecorvo, Vanessa Redgrave, Alexandr Adabashyan, Aurelio De Laurentiis, Giuseppe Rotunno, Greta Scacchi, Max von Sydow, Marco Bellocchio, Claudia Cardinale, Marin Karmitz, Istvàn Szabò, Fernando Trueba.

A prestigious jury panel of famous European movie directors guarantees for the festival since its foundation. Theo Angelopoulos, Michelangelo Antonioni, Marco Bellocchio, Luis Berlanga, Bernardo Bertolucci, John Boorman, Henning Carlsen, Vera Chytilova, Costa Gavras, Manoel de Oliveira, André Delvaux, Maárta Mészáros, Alain Resnais, Eric Rohmer, John Schlesinger, Volker Schlöndorff, Ettore Scola, Margarethe von Trotta, Wim Wenders, Krzysztof Zanussi are in the Committee and will be sided by other famous colleagues in the next editions.