biographies     Maurizio Nichetti Born in Milan, a graduate in architecture from the city's Polytechnic. After gaining experience as a writer for animated features in the studio of Bruno Bozzetto (Allegro non troppo, 1975), he made his full-length live action debut in 1979, writing, directing and appearing in Ratataplan, a low-budget production which scored a notable success at the Venice festival and went on to become a huge hit at the box-office. Nichetti's films have been shown at festivals worldwide; he is a regular guest in London, Toronto, Valencia, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Madrid and Berlin, while a number of festivals have dedicated retrospectives to his work, including Annecy, Vevey, Palm Springs, Villerupte. The Icicle Thief (Ladri di saponette) won the Moscow Festival, Volere Volare was laureled at the Montreal Festival and Luna e l'altra was the winner of the Brussels Fantasy Film Festival. Nichetti was a juror at the Berlin Festival in 1998 and the following year he was on jury service again, this time in Cannes. From 1997 to 1999 he was on the board at Cinecittà Holding, where his responsibilities included the brief for new technologies and promotion of Italian cinema abroad, film restoration and cinema for young people. Honolulu Baby, Nichetti's eighth film as director, sees the return of the character of Alberto Colombo, the engineer in Ratataplan. Twenty years ago Colombo was trying to get a job with a multinational corporation. Today he's trying to get them to fire him. Married (no children) to an employee of a McDonald's hamburger restaurant, he finds the solutions to his problems in love and at work through an amazing adventure which he experiences in a remote corner of the world. Another fantasy comedy-drama which takes its cue from the everyday problems faced by many families, the film leads to the saving of a marriage on the rocks and through an attempt at dismissal from employment, six separate maternities and thousands of tubes. All expressed in the highly visual comic language familiar from all of Nichetti's work. www.nichetti.it.   Maria de Medeiros Of Portuguese origin, de Medeiros currently works in France, Spain and the USA. Since 1980 she has appeared in more than forty feature films, including Henry and June by Philippe Kaufman (1989), Meeting Venus by Itsvan Svabo (1990), L'homme de ma vie by Jean-Charles Tacchella (1991), Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino (1993); in 1993 she took the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival for her performance in Teresa Villaverde's film Tres Irmaos. Her most recent work has been her directing debut with the full-length feature Capitaines d'Avril, in which she also appears alongside Stefano Accorsi, Frèderic Pierrot and Joaquim De Almeida. Jean Rochefort Already a member of the Lègion d'Honneur and honoured with the title of Commandeur des Arts et Lettres, Jean Rochefort also received a special Cèsar award in 1999, in recognition of his career in cinema. He has appeared in more than eighty films, including Cartouche by Philippe De Broca, The Phantom of Liberty by Luis Bunuel, Que la fÕte commence by Bertrand Tavernier, Prêt-à-Porter by Robert Altman, The Hairdresser's Husband and Ridicule by Patrice Leconte.