For the month of December the Fondazione Cinema per Roma, which has organized the Rome Film Festival since 2007, has arranged a series of talks that will give audiences at some of Rome’s major outlying cultural venues — il Nuovo Cinema Aquila, il Centro Culturale Elsa Morante and il Teatro Biblioteca Quarticciolo – the chance to meet well-known film stars and directors from Italy and the world at large. The event is curated by Mario Sesti and is a joint effort between the Fondazione and the Office of the Councillor for the Culture, Creativity and Artistic Promotion of Roma Capitale. Part of the City Council’s city-wide project “Rome. Large Format”, the program features British filmmaker Ken Loach, writer and director Gabriele Salvatores and the stage, screen and TV actor Marco Giallini.

With this initiative, as well as others planned for the coming months, the Rome Film Festival, which arranges film-related events throughout the year, continues to make good on its promise to get the whole city involved in culture, as it has done successfully in the past, arranging talks with Leonardo DiCaprio, Riccardo Scamarcio, and Sylvester Stallone at the Teatro Tor Bella Monaca.

On Tuesday, December 2 at 20:00, Ken Loach – universally acknowledged as one of Europe’s master filmmakers most committed to social change; and winner of lifetime achievement awards from the Venice, Berlin and Locarno film festivals, as well as the Palme d’Or at Cannes for his film The Wind That Shakes the Barley – will be the guest speaker at the Nuovo Cinema Aquila. As is his custom, Ken Loach will treat audiences to a close-up look at the styles and issues inherent in his often unconventional filmmaking; raw and to the point, it’s cinema that always packs an emotional punch. His talk follows the 18:00 screening of his latest film, Jimmy’s Hall, in competition at Cannes this year and now slated for a December 18 Italian release, distributed by BiM.

On Friday, December 5 at 18:00, audiences at the Centro Culturale Elsa Morante will come face to face with Gabriele Salvatores, Oscar®-winning director of Mediterraneo, and the eclectic auteur who brought us some of the most acclaimed and most original Italian films in recent decades, such as Marrakesh Express, I’m Not Scared, Nirvana and Siberian Education. The Neapolitan filmmaker will take questions from the audience and retrace the steps of his career, from his debut in theater in the early 1970s to his latest effort, The Invisible Boy, clips of which will be screened for the occasion, in a sneak peak at this soon-to-be-released film (December 18) distributed by 01 Distribution.

On Wednesday, December 10 at 18:00, Marco Giallini meets his fans at the Teatro Biblioteca Quarticciolo. The award-winning Roman actor – who received the Silver Ribbon for best supporting actor for his roles in ACAB – All Cops Are Bastards by Stefano Sollima and Posti in piedi in paradiso by Carlo Verdone, and has also appeared in the TV series Romanzo criminale and on the stage as well, directed by the likes of Arnold Foà, Ennio Coltorti and Angelo Orlando – will chat with the audience and treat them to a selection of clips from films he has acted in, in a journey through a highly rewarding career during which he has played a variety of very different roles, whether as a character actor,  sidekick or star, all of which have earned him the lasting affection of ordinary filmgoers.

Admission to all the talks, each moderated by Mario Sesti, will be free on a first-come, first-served basis.