As film festivals - here and overseas - head into the great unknown and go digital, one at least remains proudly theatrical, the New Zealand Italian Festival.
It's hardly surprising. Italy has been intimately involved in film from the very start. They pioneered the gigantic blockbuster back in the silent era. They invented neo-realism after the war, and gave the world Fellini, Bertolucci and the spaghetti western. The Italians have always offered Cinema Paradiso, to coin a phrase!
Simon Morris talks to Paolo Rotondo, director of the Italian Film Festival, which is about to be launched in Napier on July the 29th before taking off around the country.
