The 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam opens on Wednesday evening 21 January 2009 with the world première of the American feature THE HUNGRY GHOSTS. This is the film directing debut of scriptwriter, theatre director and actor Michael Imperioli, who came to fame in his role as Christopher Montisanti in the TV series The Sopranos. THE HUNGRY GHOSTS has also been selected in the VPRO Tiger Awards Competition.

In THE HUNGRY GHOSTS, Imperioli’s characters float like ghosts through life, looking for happiness, hoping to fulfil a desire. The film, set in New York and its surroundings in a period of 36 hours, contains several narrative lines. In one of these, late-night radio host Frank gambles and uses drugs at the expense of his teenage son. In another, philosophical seeker Gus, fresh out of a detox-program, searches for his ex-lover Nadia. It becomes clear and inevitable that initially independent narrative lines will come together in the end.

Festival Director Rutger Wolfson about THE HUNGRY GHOSTS as Rotterdam 2009 Opening Film: “THE HUNGRY GHOSTS is an excellently directed, written and acted portrait of roaming souls, looking for themselves and for liberation. Michael Imperioli reveals his talent in the subtle way in which he makes this both human and occasionally contradictory urge visible. I am excited to present THE HUNGRY GHOSTS as Opening Film and consider this directorial début, just like all others selected in Tiger Awards Competition, as starting points of promising film-making careers.”

The delegation expected to attend the world première on the IFFR 2009 Opening Night, includes: Michael Imperioli (writer, director), Victoria Imperioli (production designer, producer), lead actors Steve Schirripa and Sharon Angela (both known from The Sopranos), Nick Sandow (lead actor), Joe Scarpinito (executive producer), Diane Crespo (producer) and Stefan Schaefer (producer, and also small acting role).

Michael Imperioli (1966, US) is best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti in the award-winning American HBO television series THE SOPRANOS. For this role he received an Emmy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ and a Golden Globe nomination. Alongside his role, he also wrote five episodes of the series.
Imperioli first came to fame with his role as Spider in GOODFELLAS by Martin Scorcese. Since then he has played more than 30 characters and worked together with among others Spike Lee, the Hughes Brothers, Nancy Savoka and Peter Jackson. Recently he played a leading role in LIFE ON MARS, an ABC TV series that has been screened in America since October, based on the Emmy award-winning BBC series.

Imperioli has worked for more than 10 years in the New York theatre world, where he produced, directed and acted. Together with his wife Victoria Imperioli he founded Studio Dante, a small theatre that focuses on presenting new plays by a young generation of theatre makers.
Michael Imperioli made his writing/directing début with THE HUNGRY GHOSTS. He wrote the script with many of his favourite actors and colleagues in mind.

THE HUNGRY GHOSTS has been produced by Cicala Filmworks from New York. A second new Cicala Filmworks production, the Iceland/American tragicomic film STORA PLANID (THE HIGHER FORCE) by Olaf de Fleur Johannesson, is having its international première in the Spectrum main programme section Spectrum of the coming IFFR. In THE HIGHER FORCE, Michael Imperioli and Stefan Schaefer are in the cast, alongside several of Iceland’s best-known actors.