We are excited to celebrate Italian cinema together with our partners from the Frankfurt Book Fair/THE ARTS+!

In celebration of this year's Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Italy, B3, in partnership with the Frankfurt Book Fair/THE ARTS+, is paying homage to the remarkable film legacy of Italian filmmakers. As part of this tribute, we are posthumously honouring Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, the famed Taviani brothers, who are among Italy’s most distinguished directors and screenwriters.

We are especially honoured that Ermanno Taviani, son of Paolo Taviani, will accept the award during the B3 Opening and Award Show at the ASTOR Film Lounge in Frankfurt on 13 October 2024 at 8 pm.

As part of the celebrations, B3 will present three of the Taviani brothers' finest films at the ASTOR Film Lounge in Frankfurt from 14 to 16 October 2024: Padre Padrone, Cesare deve morire, San Michele aveva un gallo, as well as the captivating documentary La passione e l'utopia, which explores their remarkable body of work.

We are also thrilled to welcome our partner, Adrian Wootton OBE, CEO of Film London, who will give an insightful introduction to the Taviani brothers' cinematic legacy on 14 October 2024 at 6:15 pm.

In addition to this, we will be screening other Italian masterpieces and literary adaptations, including the newly restored version of Visconti's classic The Leopard, featuring the recently deceased French actor Alain Delon, as well as L'amore molesto and the award-winning 2023 film Confidenza.

We look forward to celebrating this rich heritage of Italian cinema with you!

The brothers Paolo Taviani (born 8 November 1931 in San Miniato, Italy; died 29 February 2024 in Rome) and Vittorio Taviani (born 20 September 1929 in San Miniato, Italy; died 15 April 2018 in Rome) were highly acclaimed Italian film directors and screenwriters. They always worked together and, throughout their careers, jointly won 57 film awards, serving as inspirations for numerous now-established international filmmakers.

Paolo Taviani studied art, while Vittorio Taviani pursued law at the University of Pisa, although Vittorio did not complete his degree. In 1954, they made their directorial debut with a short film in the style of Roberto Rossellini. Their first independently directed feature film was I sovversivi (The Subversives) in 1967, which anticipated the events of 1968. The Taviani brothers gained international recognition through their feature films Allonsanfàn (1974, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Lea Massari) and Padre Padrone (1977, based on a novel by Gavino Ledda), which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 1982, they told a story from the Italian Resistance’s fight against the fascist militia in 1944 in their feature film The Night of the Shooting Stars. With absurd humour, it shows how young men from a village are divided into two groups and eventually forced to shoot at each other.

In 2012, the Taviani brothers won the Golden Bear at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival for Caesar Must Die. For this film, they spent six months filming inmates in a high-security wing of the Rebibbia prison in Rome, as they rehearsed a performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

Vittorio Taviani passed away in Rome in April 2018, after a long illness, at the age of 88. Rainbow: A Private Affair (2018) was directed by Paolo Taviani alone, although both brothers were credited for the screenplay. In 2022, Paolo Taviani completed the feature film Leonora addio, which was invited to compete at the Berlinale.