Magnifico! It’s one of the words that has been used to describe this year’s edition of the Italian Film Festival USA of Metro Detroit. “This was an incredibly successful edition,” said Enzo Paglia of Washington and a member of the committee that organizes Detroit’s version of the annual film festival that began in St. Louis in 2004 and currently has 12 cities participating.

Opening night at the Detroit Institute of Arts drew more than 600 people anxious to see Detroit’s screening of the Italian film, “At Love for War.” By the end of the four-week festival more than 4,000 spectators had attended one of 18 films shown at venues throughout southeast Michigan including Chippewa Valley High School in Clinton Township and several of the discussions that followed.