Monte-Carlo Comedy Film Festival

The event is the fruit of a collaboration with Efg Bank of Monaco and it is placed under the High Patronage of HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and the Embassy of Italy.

As it was stated during the press conference on October 6, Salle de la Mer at the Fairmont Hotel in Monte-Carlo “The show must go on, the cinema is alive”, “let’s go back to the cinema”. is held under the leadership of actor, director and television host Ezio Greggio, director of the Festival and president of the jury, mostly female this year, it is not bad to point out. He was surrounded by the four jurors, the director , actor, American screenwriter Nick Vallelonga, Oscar winner in 2019 for the best original screenplay of the film Green Book: Sur les routes du sud; the Italian Sabrina Impacciatore; the Spanish Maggie Civantos and the Dutch Lotte Verbeek, all three already loaded with awards .

This year, Ezio Greggio introduced a new section dedicated to short films, Short Comedy Award.
At the opening of the Festival was “Un Triomphe” by director Emmanuel Courcol, with Kad Merad, David Ayala, Lamine Cissokho, presented on Monday October 5th at 7.45pm at the Grimaldi Forum, it will also be the opening film of the Cannes Film Festival on October 27th. An actor leads a theater workshop in prison and tries to exploit the qualities of prisoners.

About ten films were screened, coming from France, Spain, Israel, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Kosovo-Albania-Macedonia, USA,
The world premiere of “The Comeback Trail” by director George Gallo starring Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones, Zach Braff and Kate Katzman, who was also among the Festival guests, was also highly anticipated. It was the last film screened on Friday October 9, out of competition. An old man who owes the Mafia money imagines an insurance scam.

The gala evening during which the winners were revealed took place on Saturday October 10 at 8 p.m. at the Grimaldi Forum.
-The awards for best film, best director, audience award and a special mention for the entire cast went to “Nightlife” by German director Simon Verhoeven. The film takes place in Berlin against a backdrop of nightlife invaded by little thugs.

-Candelà Pena received the award for Best Actress for her performance in the film “La Boda de Rosa” (The Marriage of Rosa) directed by Icíar Bollaín. It is the story of a 45-year-old woman who realizes that she has always lived her life in relation to others. So she decides to give up everything and make her dream come true.

-The Best Actor award went to the Italian Nando Paone for “Il ladro di Cardellini” by Carlo Luglio. He plays the role of an old forest ranger who spends his days between alcohol and video poker in the south of Italy. To repay his debts, he organizes an unusual scam but nothing will go as planned.

-The first Short Comedy Award in the short film category, Cash Stash by Enya Baroux and Martin Darondeau, went to a French film.

-Special prizes were also awarded: Monte-Carlo Film Festival Award to Maggie Civantos, Sabrina Impacciatore and Andrea Morricone; Career Award to French filmmaker Patrice Leconte; actor of the future under 30 award to Italian actor Alessio Lapice; King of Comedy award to famous Italian actor Nino Frassica. As for the president of the jury Nick Vallelonga, he was honored with the Legend Award.