By Beth Accomando, Rebecca Romani

San Diego Italian Film Festival (SDIFF) throws a 10th anniversary birthday bash with some intriguing new films. There's always something to cheer about when a film festival hits its 10-year mark. One has a sense the festival is here to stay and a hope that it is settling into what promises to be a vibrant, mature presence on the local film scene.

SDIFF is showcasing 10 films to celebrate its first decade with a gala birthday party set for this Sunday. Executive director and festival founder Victor Laruccia said the festival is focusing on three things. "One is films by women, the other is an homage to a really great Italian director who died in January this year, Ettore Scola, and the other is just simply the range of Italian art in cinema," Laruccia said. "We make a real special effort to find things like, for example, 'L'arte della felicita,' which is actually an incredibly beautiful animation which we don't see very often from Italy but we hope to see more of."

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Source: http://www.kpbs.org/