Adriano Aprà (18 November 1940 – 15 April 2024) was an Italian film critic, film historian, screenwriter, director, festival curator, academic and occasional actor.
Born in Rome, Aprà graduated in law at Sapienza University, and made his debut as a film critic in 1960, collaborating with Edoardo Bruno's journal Filmcritica.[1][2] In 1966, he founded the magazine Cinema & film which he directed until 1970.[1][2] He served as director of the Salso Film & TV Festival between 1977 and 1989 and of the Pesaro International Film Festival between 1990 and 1998, and was president of the Cineteca Nazionale between 1998 and 2002.[1][3] He also collaborated with the Venice Film Festival, curating the 1981 retrospective dedicated to Howard Hawks.[2]
In 1970, Aprà founded the Filmstudio film society and directed his first film, Olimpia agli amici, which entered the Locarno Film Festival.[1][2] He wrote the screenplay of Fiorella Infascelli's The Mask,[2] and was actor in films directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, Marco Ferreri, Mario Schifano, Francesca Archibugi, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet.[4] Between 2002 and 2008 he was professor of history and critic of cinema at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.[3]
Aprà died on 15 April 2024, at the age of 83.[4]
