{"id":9570,"date":"2026-02-23T17:02:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T16:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bifest.it\/il-dio-dellamore-by-francesco-lagi-to-be-the-opening-film-of-bifst-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T15:05:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T14:05:23","slug":"il-dio-dellamore-by-francesco-lagi-to-be-the-opening-film-of-bifst-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bifest.it\/en\/il-dio-dellamore-by-francesco-lagi-to-be-the-opening-film-of-bifst-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIL DIO DELL\u2019AMORE\u201d BY FRANCESCO LAGI TO BE THE OPENING FILM OF BIF&amp;ST 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The opening film of the 17th edition of the Bif&amp;st \u2013 Bari International Film&amp;TV Festival, directed by Oscar Iarussi, will be Il Dio dell\u2019amore, a new comedy about contemporary love directed by Francesco Lagi.<\/p>\n\n<p>Il Dio dell\u2019amore will be premiered in Bari on Saturday 21 March at the Teatro Petruzzelli, as part of the \u201cRosso di Sera\u201d section, in the presence of director Francesco Lagi and the cast, including Vanessa Scalera, Vinicio Marchioni, Isabella Ragonese and Francesco Colella, before hitting Italian cinemas on 26 March, distributed by Vision Distribution.<\/p>\n\n<p>The film explores the oldest and most powerful of emotions, Love, as seen through the curious and inquisitive eyes of an exceptional mentor: the great man of letters, master of seduction and poet-expert on love, Ovid, played by Francesco Colella.<\/p>\n\n<p>The film, written by Enrico Audenino and Francesco Lagi, stars Anna Bellato, Enrico Borello, Benedetta Cimatti, Chiara Ferrara, Corrado Fortuna, Vinicio Marchioni, Isabella Ragonese and Vanessa Scalera, with Francesco Colella in the role of Ovid and music by Stefano Bollani.<\/p>\n\n<p>The God of Love is a production by Cattleya \u2013 part of ITV Studios \u2013 BartlebyFilm and Vision Distribution in collaboration with SKY and the Ministry of Culture\u2019s Directorate-General for Cinema and Audiovisual Media \u2013 a film produced and distributed with the support of the Fund for the Development of Investment in Cinema and Audiovisual Media.<br\/><\/p>\n\n<p>SYNOPSIS<br\/><br\/>Il Dio dell\u2019Amore is a journey, or an exploration, into romantic relationships. A story about the emotional destinies of a group of people, about their ways of loving, of touching, of connecting with one another. It is an ensemble piece with an ironic, smiling yet also bitter tone, depicting humanity entangled in the chaos of feelings that have always stirred and amazed us. The characters are all linked by romantic relationships and, when viewed together, form part of a dense tapestry, a weave in which each is a knot, a beginning and an end. Their fate lies in the hands of the God of Love, a capricious and unpredictable creature, at times benevolent and gentle, at others fierce and combative. Guiding us on this journey is the poet Ovid, the eternal bard of love who, beyond all sentimentality and morality, returns from Imperial Rome directly to our contemporary world to tell us this story.<br\/>     <\/p>\n\n<p>The BIF&amp;ST 2026 is the festival of the Apulia Region, presided over by Antonio Decaro, produced by the Apulia Film Commission Foundation, chaired by Anna Maria Tosto and directed by Antonio Parente, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Bari, the University of Bari \u201cAldo Moro\u201d, and numerous other public and private partners to be announced at a later date.<br\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The opening film of the 17th edition of the Bif&amp;st \u2013 Bari International Film&amp;TV Festival, directed by Oscar Iarussi, will be Il Dio dell\u2019amore, a new comedy about contemporary love directed by Francesco Lagi. Il Dio dell\u2019amore will be premiered in Bari on Saturday 21 March at the Teatro Petruzzelli, as part of the \u201cRosso [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u201cIL DIO DELL\u2019AMORE\u201d BY FRANCESCO LAGI TO BE THE OPENING FILM OF BIF&amp;ST 2026 - Bif&amp;st<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bifest.it\/en\/il-dio-dellamore-by-francesco-lagi-to-be-the-opening-film-of-bifst-2026\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cIL DIO DELL\u2019AMORE\u201d BY FRANCESCO LAGI TO BE THE OPENING FILM OF BIF&amp;ST 2026 - Bif&amp;st\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The opening film of the 17th edition of the Bif&amp;st \u2013 Bari International Film&amp;TV Festival, directed by Oscar Iarussi, will be Il Dio dell\u2019amore, a new comedy about contemporary love directed by Francesco Lagi. Il Dio dell\u2019amore will be premiered in Bari on Saturday 21 March at the Teatro Petruzzelli, as part of the \u201cRosso [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bifest.it\/en\/il-dio-dellamore-by-francesco-lagi-to-be-the-opening-film-of-bifst-2026\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bif&amp;st\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bifest.it\/?locale=it_IT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-23T16:02:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-20T14:05:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bifest.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/dsc_5205-marchioni-ragonese-fortuna-scaled-1.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1703\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gestore\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bifest_official\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bifest_official\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gestore\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bifest.it\/en\/il-dio-dellamore-by-francesco-lagi-to-be-the-opening-film-of-bifst-2026\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bifest.it\/en\/il-dio-dellamore-by-francesco-lagi-to-be-the-opening-film-of-bifst-2026\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"gestore\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bifest.it\/#\/schema\/person\/32039941f4bbe490ed6805c2ea11888b\"},\"headline\":\"\u201cIL DIO DELL\u2019AMORE\u201d BY FRANCESCO LAGI TO BE THE OPENING FILM OF BIF&amp;ST 2026\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-23T16:02:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-20T14:05:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bifest.it\/en\/il-dio-dellamore-by-francesco-lagi-to-be-the-opening-film-of-bifst-2026\/\"},\"wordCount\":462,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bifest.it\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bifest.it\/en\/il-dio-dellamore-by-francesco-lagi-to-be-the-opening-film-of-bifst-2026\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/bifest.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/dsc_5205-marchioni-ragonese-fortuna-scaled-1.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bifest.it\/en\/il-dio-dellamore-by-francesco-lagi-to-be-the-opening-film-of-bifst-2026\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bifest.it\/en\/il-dio-dellamore-by-francesco-lagi-to-be-the-opening-film-of-bifst-2026\/\",\"name\":\"\u201cIL DIO DELL\u2019AMORE\u201d BY FRANCESCO LAGI TO BE THE OPENING FILM OF BIF&amp;ST 2026 - 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