The New Cinema and the Distribution Dilemma: The Hypothesis of the Pesaro Mostra Internazionale del Cinema Nuovo in the 1965-1967 Conferences

Abstract

Focusing on the Pesaro Mostra Internazionale del Cinema Nuovo (MICN), the essay explores how the festival’s programming policies and organizational practices supported the so-called “new cinemas”, embedding this exploration within the frame of the Italian antifestivals and their emergence in the mid-1960s. Building on an extensive archival research, carried out in the MICN’ archives in Pesaro, the essay seeks to retrace the topics and arguments debated during the conferences held at the first three editions of the Mostra (1965-1967). The choice of this focus is given by the extraordinary importance of these conferences which, stemmed out of the MICN organizers’ strong desire to facilitate the distribution of the “new cinemas”, set the ground for the creation of an international committee aimed at organizing the circulation in Italy and abroad of the films discovered in Pesaro.