Whether their lenses turn to China's history, in the form of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, or the uplifting and touching tale portrayed in Roberto Begnini's Life is Beautiful, Italian auteurs continue to impress cinema audiences.
The Italian Film Festival will again showcase celluloid gems with artistic flourish and superb acting when it opens at the Grand Cinema in Elements Mall on Thursday.
The first film is Francesco Falaschi's comedy Emma Sono Io (I am Emma), starring Cecilia Dazzi as a woman whose outlandish behaviour forces her to make a drastic life change.
La Terra (Our Land) picked up the Shanghai International Film Festival award for best cinematography in 2006. The comedy features director Sergio Rubini in a cameo role as a shifty loan shark and tells the tale of four brothers at odds over a land sale. La Terra plays on June 18.
Sandro Baldoni's Italian Dream, playing on June 23, is a black comedy about a hotel clerk who dreams of opening a restaurant in London but finds himself designated by a suicidal businessman as his assassin.
Gabriele Muccino's Come Te Nessuno Mai (But Forever in My Mind) won the audience award at the Paris Film Festival in 2002. It will be screened on June 16.