Claudia Pandolfi Named MC for Rome Film Fest's Opening and Closing Events

ROME – The International Rome Film Festival announced Wednesday that Italian actress Claudia Pandolfi will be the master of ceremonies for both the festival’s gala opening and its closing events.

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The Rome-born Pandolfi, who will turn 38 on Nov. 17, the same day as the closing ceremony, is a veteran of around three dozen mostly Italian films and television series, most notably Paolo Virzi’s comedy La prima cosa bella (The First Beautiful Thing), where she earned a David di Donatello nomination for Best Supporting Actress. La prima cosa bella was co-written by Francesco Bruni, who will play a different  role at the Rome festival as the head of the Italian-only Perspectives Italy sidebar.

Pandolfi will officially declare open the seven-year-old event on Nov. 9 by presenting the international jury and preview the opening of Bakhtiar Khudojnazarov’s epic tale V Ožidanii Morja (Waiting for the Sea), the festival’s opening film. Eight days later, she will preside over the gala awards ceremony and the screening of the closing film, Una pistola in cada mano (A Gun in each Hand), from Catalan director Cesc Gay.

Both V Ožidanii Morja and Una pistola in cada mano will screen out of competition in Rome.

The Rome festival is being headed this year by Marco Mueller, who took the reins of the event after and eight-year tenure as artistic director at the Venice Film Festival.