The Instituto Italiano de Cultura in Madrid opens this afternoon at 7 pm the 18th Festival of Italian Cinema of Madrid at the Cinemas Callao, with a concert by Paolo Fresu and Pierpaolo Vacca and the screening of Fuori by Mario Martone.
This edition will last until next Sunday, December 7 in several neighborhoods of the Spanish capital, increasing the number of films, meetings and parallel sections, among which will debut inclusive premieres. There will be tributes to the protagonists of the great Italian cinema, with the participation of Spanish film institutions and the Italian Film Commissions: all new features introduced by Elena Fontanella, the new prestigious director of the Instituto Italiano de Cultura in Madrid, organiser of the festival.
One of the main novelties of this edition is the participation of Piedmont as invited Region. Its presence will offer the Madrid public the opportunity to discover and appreciate from close up the excellences of the territory: a heritage rich in culture, traditions, innovation and products of the highest quality.
Another novelty is the invitation addressed to Italian productions and Film Commissions to participate in the festival: thanks to the collaboration with the City of Madrid, the central Casa de la Panadería will be the venue for meetings between the Italian and Spanish Film Commissions on 2 December.
Each screening will be enriched by the presence of a talent -director, actor or author- who will talk about his genesis and his creative journey. Among the invited outstanding personalities, which can be consulted on the official website of the Madrid Italian Film Festival, are Monica Guerritore, who will receive a special prize, and Paolo Genovese, who will receive the Career Award 2025. They are joined by, among others, Neri Marcorè and Luca Zingaretti, who present in this edition their debut behind the camera, going from actors to directors.
This year, the Festival’s prize will be a work in artistic ceramics, a tribute to the link and mutual encouragement between the world of art and that of business. This is a Black Cat by Aldo Londi, made in limited edition by Bitossi Ceramics (Montelupo Fiorentino, Florence). Originally created in 1982, the Gatto 3 still represents an icon of contemporary ceramic art.
The collaboration with the Giffoni Film Festival is also expanding, which together with a selection of films will offer its prestigious workshops to film students from Madrid. A new section, called “Festival OFF”, this year by Stefania Rifiordi, will follow the new authors and inclusive premieres made in collaboration with the Iglesia de San Antón of Madrid and the Hospital del Niño Jesús.
All screenings, with free admission and in original version with subtitles in Spanish, will take place in different spaces of the capital. The Italian Institute of Culture in Madrid will host the retrospective section, with the screening of Sergio Leone’s Trilogia del Dollaro, the tribute to Claudia Cardinale with I soliti ignoti, as well as two films proposed by Giffoni and a film workshop dedicated to young people.
