News from Italy
The Heart of Cinema Beats in Rome, the City of Light
by Andira Vitale
In its 20th year, the Festival del Cinema di Roma celebrates the transformation of contemporary cinema with the theme “Visioni in Movimento.”
With October, the city of light once again becomes the heart of European cinema. Artificial intelligence, digital storytelling, and the legacy of classic Italian cinema all take centre stage this year. The magical atmosphere that permeates the city’s pastel-colored historic buildings, from the stone streets to the Cinecittà studios, reminds us that cinema is not just an art form but a way of life. Like Rome itself, the festival embodies the light of the past and the dream of the future. The evolution of cinema, Rome’s continuity, and the human desire to tell stories combine, transforming Rome once again into the brightest stage of the “art of light.”
The Rome Film Festival isn’t an event driven by competitive ambitions like Cannes or Venice. Here, cinema is a shared space: With director talks, open-air screenings, and thematic panels, the audience becomes not just a viewer but also a reflective, debating participant. This approach reflects Rome’s cinematic tradition. Fellini’s dreamlike scenes, Pasolini’s political language, Rossellini’s realism—we find them all in the spirit of the festival.
Respect for masters like Fellini and Pinna
This philosophy of the Rome Film Festival is also reflected in its poster. The selected image is taken from a shot taken on the set of Federico Fellini’s Juliet of the Spirits, an iconic title in the great filmmaker’s 1965 filmography. The image is a dreamlike and playful rush, a shot full of poetry in which Fellini’s silhouette, seen from behind, is instantly recognizable. The poster from the set of Juliet of the Spirits, featuring Fellini, rewinds sixty years, drawing inspiration from Fellini’s art and Franco Pinna’s vision to draw attention to an event that has become a benchmark for national and international film buffs. The tribute to the Italian master of photography will continue with three parallel exhibitions.
The festival’s theme, “Visioni in Movimento,” focuses on the evolution of cinema in the digital age, new forms of narrative, and the dance of technology with creativity. This unique theme is sure to stimulate intellectual discussions and provide a fresh perspective on the art of cinema.
This year, the festival features a diverse selection of 150 films from 38 countries, promising a cinematic journey like no other. This year’s edition will be characterized by a wide range of themes: from pressing global conflicts, with films such as 2000 Meters To Andriivka by Mstyslav Chernov and Cuba & Alaska by Yegor Troyanovsky, to music, with Rino Gaetano – Sempre più blu by Giorgio Verdelli and It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley by Amy Berg, and literature, such as Pirandello – Il gigante innamorato by Costanza Quatriglio. The diverse selection aims to reach an increasingly broad audience.
Space is also dedicated to international and Italian television series, including Spain’s Anatomía de un instante by Alberto Rodríguez, which revisits the 1981 coup attempt; The Deal by Jean-Stéphane Bron, which recounts the 2015 Geneva negotiations between the US and Iran. Among Italian series, highlights include Sandokan by Jan Maria Michelini and Nicola Abbatangelo, Mrs Playmen by Riccardo Donna, about Adelina Tattilo, the devout Catholic woman behind Italy’s first erotic magazine; Prima di noi, a family saga by Daniele Luchetti and Valia Santella; La Preside by Luca Miniero (co-produced with Alice nella città); Guerrieri – Le regole dell’equilibrio by Gianluca Maria Tavarelli; and the final chapter of Vita da Carlo, which will close the festival.
Main sections:
Progressive Cinema – formal experiments, experimental films
Everybody’s Talking About It – social stories
Grand Public – major productions
Freestyle Documentaries – documentaries by strong female directors
Best of Europe – independent European productions
The 2025 Rome Film Fest, has chosen Riccardo Milani’s Life Goes That Way as its opening film. The Italian auteur’s new comedy is set in Sardinia and is inspired by a true story. Starring Virginia Raffaele, Diego Abatantuono, and Geppi Cucciari, it is one of the most anticipated titles on the event’s program. The film confirms the idea that the festival is a mirror of a living Italy, speaking to its audience with humour but also with emotional and civic tension. With this work, Riccardo Milani creates an ironic and passionate tale spanning twenty years, set in a beautiful corner of Sardinia, where a community finds itself caught between the dream of work and the defence of its territory and its identity. The film is inspired by an international event.
Lynne Ramsay’s film Die My Love, already in competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, arrives in Rome for a special early screening before its Italian release on November 27. The cast is led by Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. The story is about a relationship, a tale of love, madness, and rebirth.
In the non-competitive Grand Public section, Alice Winocour’s Couture, starring Angelina Jolie and Louis Garrel, stands out. The film centers on three women of different cultures, ages, and professions, immersed in Paris Fashion Week: an American director shooting a fashion video, struggling with her teenage daughter, and receiving a harsh medical diagnosis; a French makeup artist with literary aspirations who wants to write a book about the fashion world; and an eighteen-year-old pharmacy student from Nairobi who has become the runway’s new “exotic” discovery.
It Was Just an Accident, the film written and directed by Jafar Panahi, which won the Palme d’Or at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, arrives in Rome as part of the tribute to its author, who will receive a lifetime achievement award. The film will be released in theatres nationwide on November 6, distributed by Lucky Red.
Paolo Virzì’s film, Cinque secondi, starring Valerio Mastandrea in the lead role and Ilaria Spada, has been included in the Grand Public section. It’s a comedy about a solitary man whose armour is chipped away by an unexpected turn in his life.
Luc Besson’s Dracula: The Lost Love will have its world premiere in Rome ahead of its general release on October 29. The film, starring Christoph Waltz, Caleb Landry Jones, and Matilda De Angelis, is a reinterpretation of the story of the iconic vampire that focuses on the origins of Prince Vladimir’s transformation.
Filippo Timi e Jasmine Trinca sono i protagonisti de Gli occhi degli altri di Andrea De Sica, pellicola in Concorso. Ispirato al delitto Casati Stampa, il film racconta la storia vera del duplice omicidio opera di Camillo Casati Stampa Di Soncino. Nel cast anche Matteo Olivetti
In anteprima nella sezione Grand Public anche Per te di Alessandro Aronadio, con Edoardo Leo, Teresa Saponangelo e il giovane Javier Francesco Leoni. La pellicola, che arriva nelle sale italiane dal 17 ottobre, è ispirata alla storia vera di Mattia Piccoli, nominato Alfiere della Repubblica nel 2021 per le cure offerte al padre affetto da una forma di Alzheimer precoce
Dopo le anteprime al Festival di Telluride a quello di Toronto, l’acclamato Hamnet di Chloé Zhao, film ispirato al romanzo di Maggie O’Farrell, arriva a Roma. La pellicola, inserita nella sezione non competitiva Grand Public, racconta la vita familiare di Shakespeare da una inedita prospettiva femminile.
The Forger, a film by Stefano Lodovichi with a cast including Pietro Castellitto, Giulia Michelini, Andrea Arcangeli, Pierluigi Gigante, and Aurora Giovinazzo, is set in 1970s Rome amidst mystery, crime, and the ambitions of a young man with artistic dreams who ends up becoming a skilled forger.
Written and directed by Annemarie Jacir, Palestine 36 is a historical drama set in Palestine in the second half of the 1930s, amidst the British occupation, Jewish immigration from fascist Europe, and the indigenous population’s demands for independence. The cast includes Hiam Abbas and Jeremy Irons.
Before Us is one of the upcoming television series. Directed by Daniele Luchetti and Valia Santella and produced by Wildside, it will soon be airing on Rai 1. It is a family saga that unfolds across twentieth-century Italy. At its core are the events of the Sartori family, as described in Giorgio Fontana’s 2020 novel. The cast includes Linda Caridi, Andrea Arcangeli, Alessandro Bedetti, Elena Lietti, Fausto Maria Sciarappa, and Maurizio Lastrico.
Monica Guerritore is the writer, lead actress, and director (this is her debut film) of Anna. The film, which centres on Anna Magnani, chronicles the life of the Italian star unchronologically. It is released in theatres on November 6.
Among the side events, the “Cinema & Future Forum” stands out this year. This forum will delve into the impact of artificial intelligence on cinema, discussing its ethical and aesthetic dimensions. It will also explore how AI is shaping the future of storytelling in cinema. A retrospective on the 105th anniversary of Fellini’s birth will also reiterate the enduring power of classic cinema. The closing film, Barry Jenkins’ “Light Years From Here,” tells the story of a man’s journey between hope and loneliness.
The Competition Jury
Two years after her triumph at the Rome Film Fest with There’s Still Tomorrow, actress, screenwriter, author, and director Paola Cortellesi will chair the jury of the Progressive Cinema Competition, the competitive section of the Rome Film Fest. She will be joined by Finnish director and screenwriter Teemu Nikki, British director and screenwriter William Oldroyd, American writer and illustrator Brian Selznick, and French-Finnish actress Nadia Tereszkiewicz. The jury will award the following prizes to the films in the Progressive Cinema Competition: Best Film, Grand Jury Prize, Best Director, Best Screenplay, the “Monica Vitti” Award for Best Actress, the “Vittorio Gassman” Award for Best Actor, and the Special Jury Prize, chosen by the President and the jurors from among other categories.
Host: Ema Stokholma
Ema Stokholma hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the twentieth Rome Film Festival, which will be held on Wednesday, October 15 at 7:00 PM in the Sala Sinopoli of the Ennio Morricone Auditorium Parco della Musica, before the screening of Riccardo Milani’s opening film, La vita va così (That’s How Life Goes), and on Saturday, October 25 at 5:00 PM in the Sala Petrassi during the awards ceremony.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Great anticipation surrounds the arrival of Jafar Panahi, who is awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award. The acclaimed Iranian director will present his new film Un simple accident, winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The award will be presented by Oscar-winning director Giuseppe Tornatore.
The Industry Lifetime Achievement Award, a new addition to this year’s festival, will go to film producer Lord David Puttnam, honoring major figures in the global film industry who have left a lasting mark on cinema history. The award will be presented by producer, director, and screenwriter Uberto Pasolini, a long-time collaborator of Puttnam in the 1980s and 1990s.
Another new award this year is for Best Documentary, which will be judged by a panel chaired by Romanian producer Alexander Nanau, director and screenwriter Santiago Maza, and producer Nadia Trevisan.
As always, the Rome Film Fest will feature tributes, this year dedicated to Pier Paolo Pasolini, Claudio Caligari — marking ten years since his passing — and Carlo Rambaldi, master of special effects, on the centenary of his birth.
As every year, the Rome Film Fest is ready to welcome internationally renowned stars. Attending the 20th edition will be Jennifer Lawrence, who will present Die My Love (screening in the Best of 2025 section), and the entire cast of Dracula, the new film by Luc Besson, featured in the Grand Public section. Stars such as Angelina Jolie (Couture), Pedro Almodóvar (Silencio Eterno), Jacques Audiard (Les Fantômes du Tibre), and Greta Gerwig graced the red carpet.
The festival’s grand prize, the Premio Roma – Golden Marco Aurelio, will be announced on October 26.
