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With nowhere to be until 10:30am, Grace and I headed down to breakfast a little later than previous mornings. Sadly, this meant they were out of scrambled eggs. A fact I can overlook because I had a pistachio flavored croissant that I've been feeling the absence of ever since. It's got a green hue to it on the outside, don't let that frighten you. Just try it.
Our 10:30 engagement was a panel with CFA's very own Indeana Underhill and Haeleigh Royall. As CFA Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, Inde and Hae not only have the knowledge to educate filmmakers on alternative financing for their films, but CFA itself can act as a fiscal sponsor for your project. If you're looking for a way to accept and manage donations for your film, aside from fund-raising platforms that take a massive cut, fiscal sponsorship is a great option. Of course, the panel was incredible... this is kind of what Inde and Hae are all about. If you want to learn more about alternative financing check out our article, "Nòt Film Fest: Alternative Financing with CFA".
This feels like an appropriate time to mention what Grace and I now affectionately call "Italian Time". If you've been to other film festival, or have simply just lived in the US your entire life, it's quite possible you're used to rushing. Constantly. Before receiving the schedule for Nòt, I was sure Grace and I were in for 6am starts to our day and the same level of stress that exists in LA. However, I found myself truly relaxing at Nòt. If you asked Giovanni and Alizé (founders of Nòt Film Fest, read more about them HERE), I doubt they would echo this same sentiment, they are working their butts off behind the scenes to make the whole thing happen.
However, from an attendees perspective, the word ease comes to mind. Panels such as CFA's start around 10 or 10:30, later if people are slow to find their way to the theater. Here, urgency isn't the name of the game, and knowing Nòt, it never will be.
After the panel, we walked the street market, an amazing place to find a souvenir for an affordable price. Inde bought textiles with what Grace called "Mesopotamian style" horses on them, I bought my mom a tea bowl, and Grace bought conditioner. Why conditioner, you ask?
If hair washing is something you plan to do while here, they don't have conditioner at Hotel Della Porta (I asked). Not sure if it's an Italian hotel thing or just an our Italian hotel thing. Either way, we were able to procure some at a local pharmacy/convenience store – much more impressive than your average CVS. The lovely woman behind the counter even analyzed Grace's hair type before making her recommendation.
The rest of the afternoon disappeared in the same way the previous two had – another beautiful lunch at the vineyard, more interviews at CFA's studio space, and some article writing. The only difference today was the weather. While we'd had a sprinkle of rain here and there the first two days, this was the first day we experience torrential rain. And I mean TORRENTIAL. It started during lunch, everyone leaping away from the table and running for cover as the pasta on the table slowly turned to pasta soup. It carried on through interviews, providing background music to the filmmakers that stopped by to chat with us.
Luckily, the rain did stop eventually and the sun made its triumphant return. Great news for Grace and I who had a 5:30pm tour scheduled. We rushed off to the Tourist Center in Santarcangelo for what Indeana thought was going to be a wine-related tour. Picture vineyards, green rolling hills, and hints and undertones that for the life of us we couldn't detect. Instead, we ended up on a tour of the caves that run underneath the city of Santarcangelo. It was rather cold under there – intentionally existing within a microclimate all its own – and very dark. Instead of rolling hills we were underground, but hey, it wouldn't be a CFA adventure if we didn't find a way to have fun anyways. And damn if we weren't going to have a blast.
For the next 40 minutes we learned about the caves, which, by the way, are over 2,000 years old. While wine storage was a common use for the caves, they also served as protection for locals during times of war. Residents of the city would live in the caves for months at a time, sheltering themselves from bombs and the dangers of war. Despite our tour guide being French, he did his very best to provide a stellar tour for us in English. Our language barrier only caused one small confusion.
Towards the end our of tour we asked our guide if dead bodies were buried in the caves. Confidently, and without hesitation, he responded, "Oui"! All of us froze – I'm not sure if the dead bodies or the third language was more of a surprise – before clarifying that we actually weren't surrounded by any bodies. Our tour very nearly took as rather dark turn there...
We finally did emerge from the caves back into the town square, which was now bathed in the golden light of the setting sun. All very hungry by this point, we relayed every detail of the tour that we could to our team over pizza. Finally! Pizza! We had made it to the promise land. Pizzeria La Rustica took excellent care of us and provided a bustling and deliciously scented background to our cave tour story. If you do ever find yourself in Santarcangelo, pay Pizzeria La Rustica a visit and do yourself a favor – get the pizza with the potato on top. It's delicious.
As if the entire Nòt / Santarcangelo experience hadn't been perfect enough so far, we also just happened to be in town at the same time as the Gelato Festival. The festival is very cleverly named SantarcanGelato and allows ticket holders to walk from booth to booth (pictured below) and try unique flavors of gelato. Inde’s personal favorite was called “Sea Flavor” and included a mozzarella made from special Italian cow's milk. I stuck to safer things, whose names didn't elicit fear, and had a passion fruit flavored one and another with cherries and almonds throughout.
In between gelato flavors we walked the market, stopping to look at the unique trinkets each vendor had for sale. I ended up purchasing a necklace and Grace, who I wasn't aware is actually an avid soap collector, bought herself a new bar of soap. She doesn't use it. She just likes to smell it... oh, and post it to her close friends story on instagram to let everyone know a new soap has entered the villa. She used the caption "New soap, who dis" to alert her followers of the soap; I'm very proud to say the caption was my idea and I will be clinging onto that for quite some time.
Grace and I then awkwardly took red carpet photos which will never see the light of day (I used one of them for the feature photo of this article... but don't ask for more). The photographer kept telling us: “MORE ANGLES! You need more angles!” Angles are clearly not a strength of our, so we quickly ushered ourselves off the red carpet to let Inde and Hae do what they do best – look absolutely fabulous side-by-side.
It wasn't until later, the stress of bright lights and flashing cameras having worn off, that we realized we missed our opportunity. We should have pulled some kind of stunt, like synchronized cartwheels across the carpet. If we can't scrape by on looks alone, we need to dazzle and amaze. Next year, we have a plan.
Before calling it a night, we tracked down a Nòt Film Fest volunteer to interview. Riccardo Gregori very kindly agreed to be our subject, filling us in on what it was like to be a volunteer at the festival, how he got involved, and which part of the film industry he typically found himself working in when he wasn't volunteering. If you'd like to read more about volunteering at Nòt, and how to get involved, this will all be discussed in our upcoming festival guide.
In addition to our chat with Riccardo, we headed inside the festival's main indoor theater, to pick the brains of the lovely people responsible for ticketing. Our festival guide (coming soon!) delves into the several ticket tiers and options that exist for Nòt and how to purchase. Head over there to learn more, whether you want to attend the festival as an audience member next year, or get involved as a volunteer, there are so many ways to become part of the Nòt family in 2026.
One final gelato taste test involving Carmel and salted peanuts, and Grace and I were ready to retire to the lobby for a bit of writing. Accompanied by the background noise of some American medical drama dubbed in Italian, we recapped our day, writing down each detail so we could relay it back to you, our loyal readers. Hope you enjoyed, see you soon for day four.
