NICE - Profile

Nice New Italian Cinema Events is a non-profit cultural association founded in 1991 that aims to promote the new Italian cinema abroad through cultural exchanges and festivals. Its founders and members have been working for more than a decade in the organization of such international film festivals. For each Festival the selection committee chooses seven feature films among the best made by up-and-coming film directors throughout the year. Nice USA, the most established one, shows a selection of seven shorts made recently. The films presented in the Nice USA Festival are eligible to receive the “Premio Città di Firenze” (City of Florence Award) which is decided by the American audience by voting cards handed out before each screening. The prestige of the Festival has increased with the passing of years thanks also to the relations established with the most important producers and distributors (Miramax, United Artists, Touchstone Pictures, MGM etc.) and the interest they have shown for the event.

Nice also collaborated in the organization of several festivals of Italian cinema in Scotland (1992), in Puerto Rico (1993), in New Zealand (1998/2000), and in Brazil (2001, 2002).

All Nice initiatives have been supported and sponsored by: the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per il Cinema; Ministero Affari Esteri, Italian Embassies, Italian Consulates, Italian Institutes of Culture of the hosting countries; Comune di Firenze, Assessorato alla Cultura of the Comune di Firenze, Biblioteca delle Oblate. All events are made possible thanks to the collaboration of: Tribeca Film Festival, New York University - Tisch School of the Arts, New York Film Academy, Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò, San Francisco Film Society, San Francisco Film Commission, Museum of Cinema in Moscow, The Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, The Seattle International Film Festival.

Nice acknowledges also the collaboration with Cinecittà Luce, Mediateca Regionale Toscana Film Commission, Mediaset Cinema Forever, FICE, AGIS (Italian Association of Entertainment), AGIS Toscana, Cineteca Nazionale - Bologna, International Festival of Young Cinema - Turin, the International Film Festival of Venice, Sundance Film Festival, RAI Radio Televisione Italiana, RAI Corporation USA, RAI International, RAI SAT, RAI Cinema, Italian producers and distributors, Calandra Italian American Institute, The Fitzgerald Foundation of Florence.

Honorary Committee

Stefano Albertini, Director Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, New York University; Dario Argento, Director; Roberto Benigni, Director; Florinda Bolkan, Actress; Mimmo Calopresti, Director; Claudia Cardinale, Actress; Sesto Cifola, Sales Manager Rai Trade; Giuliano Da Empoli, Councilor of Florence’s Culture Department; Alessandro D’Alatri, Director; Ugo Di Tullio, President of Mediateca Regionale Toscana Film Commission; Vincent Gallo, Actor; Geoffrey Gilmore, Executive Director Tribeca Film Festival; Jim Jarmush, Director; Naum Klejman, Kino Musej Moscow; Spike Lee, Director; Graham Leggat, Executive Director San Francisco Film Society; Claudio Martini, President of Tuscan Region; Bill Murray, Actor; Ornella Muti, Actress; Jeremiah Newton, Institute of Film and Television Tisch School of the Arts, New York; Clare Peploe, Director; Robert Redford, Sundance Film Festival; Vanessa Redgrave, Actress; Matteo Renzi, Mayor of the City of Florence; Marco Risi, Director; Francesco Rosi, Director; Renzo Rossellini, Producer; Maurizio Scaparro, Director; Annabella Sciorra, Actress; Ettore Scola, Director; Luciano Sovena, President Cinecittà Luce; Carl Spence, Artistic Director Seattle Film Society; Vittorio Storaro, Director of Photography; Anthony Julian Tamburri, President Calandra Italian American Institute; Giuseppe Tornatore, Director; Giorgio Van Straten, Consiglio di Amministrazione Rai