Terence Davies, David Hume Set for Focus U.K. Event at the Rome Film Festival

ROME – Film directors Terence Davies and David Hume and Simon J. Lycett -- the artist behind the décor that was part of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s royal wedding -- will be among the highlights of the Focus U.K event at the sixth edition of the Rome International Film Festival, organizers said Friday.

Davies, Hume, musician Michael Nyman and writer Hanif Kureishi will make up the panel that will be the centerpiece of Focus U.K., meeting with audiences during a pair of meetings chaired by film critic Jonathan Romney.

Additionally, the four have teamed with actress Tilda Swinton to select a dozen films to be part of a special “Punks and Patriots” sidebar produced in collaboration with the BFI London Film Festival. Organizers said the sidebar will “shed light on the juxtaposition between the subversive youth culture of the 1970s and the British ‘mainstream’ cultural production of that period.”

The program will also include seven films outside the “Punks and Patriots” sidebar, including Page Eight by David Hare, Trishna from Michael Winterbottom, and Davies’ own The Deep Blue Sea. Actor Bill Nighy, now best known for his role in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and who starred in Page Eight and Winterbottom are both expected to appear on the festival’s red carpet.

But it won’t be just any red carpet. Lycett, who made headlines for designing the décor and flower arrangements for the royal nuptials, as well as for films including Four Weddings and a Funeral, will design the festival’s red carpet installation this year. In collaboration with London’s Chelsea Flower Show, organizers said the installation will include an abstract rendition of the Union Jack.

The official exhibition of Focus U.K, will be "Raise the Dead" produced by artist Douglas Gordon.  It will feature a series of reworked photos of famous Italian actors and a video installation called "24 Hours Psycho Back and Forth and To and Fro," dedicated to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho.

This year’s edition of the festival will take place Oct. 27-Nov. 4.