Festivals take on many different meanings for the people who have chosen to dedicate their artistic and professional lives to cinema.
For some, festivals celebrate illustrious careers and, for others, they mark the beginning of such a career.
Festivals bring culture and different worlds closer together and are a time to meet and share ideas.
New projects are nurtured, many of which are transformed into films that go on to fuel cinema itself.
They are important annual international events that have made icons of the places that host them. Places that mark the history of this beautiful art and that every year become a showcase for the dream factory.
Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Los Angeles with the Oscars and the Golden Globes. The list goes on: Toronto, Rome, New York and many others…. the art of cinema in all its various expressions is concentrated into just a few days, gathering together the “court” of the cinema industry.
“The Who’s Who of Film Festivals”
Journalists and critics from all over the world take their places. Their recorders and video cameras provide a voice to the protagonists, expressing often differing points of view on the films. Hectic days await them in a tight lineup of appointments. They have spent weeks and sometimes months preparing to be added to the schedule, hoping to get an exclusive!
The publicists that handle the press initiatives of the films and their protagonists decide who’s “in” and who’s “out”; and often their job is rather complicated…
The fashion and beauty industry keeps up with all the festival events. Each maison has selected its own star for the occasion. Stylists, makeup artists and hair stylists team up to get the celebrities ready, competing to create the most beautiful hairstyle, gown or suit.
The big night is here!
…the spotlights shine down on that bright red carpet. The music starts to rise, and with it, the tension. The crowd cheers on its idols, who play their role to perfection, unaffected by what is going on around them. . There is a magical, surreal atmosphere and suspense fills the air. Flashes from all over the world fight to capture the best picture, which the newsrooms are anxiously awaiting.
I like to think that each artist prepares himself for this moment in his own way: some with a healthy exuberance and lightness, others with an almost awkward shyness, while still others are unable to conceal their impatience. One thing I am certain of, however, is that none of them can forget their first appointment with that red carpet.
Then there are moments during every festival, before the lights go on or just after they have gone off, when the celebrities regain their intimate humanity, cherishing it for when they will need it again to prepare to face the spotlights. Those were my moments, where I tried to capture their essence... I had the honour of getting my slots in an extremely tight schedule and I shot these portraits of “people” rather than celebrities
….”Ok Ric, you are IN” …“ you will have just three minutes!”
Riccardo Ghilardi was born in Rome in 1971. After his studies, he started travelling around the world, nourishing his passion for photography with images of different societies and cultures. This led to a number of photo reportages in travel and lifestyle magazines.
In 2007 he took part in the Mostra Collettiva nternazionale FotoLeggendo in Rome, with Pensieri nel silenzio, a photo reportage on the life of a Fire Brigade team, in which he himself had served for many years.
In 2008 his artistic focus shifted towards the world of cinema.
At the Auditorium Parco Della Musica in Rome, on the occasion of the 5th International Film Festival, he launched Lo sguardo non mente (“the whole truth in 1/125th of a second through the eyes of Italian cinema”), a photographic project consisting of pointblank questions and portraits of expressions that constitute pure instinctive responses.
The project became a travel‐in‐progress and with many openings, at:
In 2013 he showed Donne in Luce, a new art project and a new photographic exhibition, at the Casa del Cinema in Rome. A gallery of portraits, with fifty Italian actresses photographed in the abandoned premises of the old Istituto Luce, the experimental cinema centre.
In 2015, at the EXPO in Milan, Save the Children showed Ghilardi’s portraits of endorsers of the “Every One” campaign.
In August 2011, he joined the team of portraitists of the international Contour by Getty Images agency based in New York and he’s been published by the top Italian and international magazines, including Time Magazine, Le Monde, Madame Figaro, AARP Magazine, More Magazine, Vanity Fair, SETTE Corriere della Sera, DLa Repubblica, Venerdì, Io Donna, Grazia, Gioia, Le Figaro, The Guardian, and others.
