Director's Cut

Parola di Barbera

tuesday, 2 september 2025

Rejecting the regime

We know Ali Asgari well from his previous works. After his last participation at Venice Festival, he is back with an astonishing film addressing the themes of rejecting the regime, censorship, and ideological oppression in Iran, his home country, a nation suffering under one of the most severe religious and political dictatorships of our time. Yet, Asgari presents these heavy topics in a comedic and surreal tone, demonstrating that it’s possible to tackle serious issues with a great lightness, without sacrificing the power of the message.

DIVINE COMEDY

Bahram is an Iranian-Azeri filmmaker marked by years of censorship and frustration: his films, shot in the northwest of the country, have never been granted permission to be screened. After yet another rejection, he decides to hop on a Vespa with his producer Sadaf and bring h...

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friday, 5 september 2025

Next-Gen audience

From 2012 onwards, we've witnessed a complete generational shift in the audience. Today, 70% of our passionate spectators are very young, ranging in age from 16 to 30, a truly impressive figure. To nurture this fresh, vibrant energy, we have implemented various promotional initiatives, such as low-cost accreditations for university students. Although it's often challenging, some of them even manage to find an accommodation in the city's hostels or student residences...

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thursday, 4 september 2025

Daring debuts

An actress making her debut as a film director, Shu Qi spent about six years working on the screenplay for this film which is a clear tribute to her great masters, in particular to Wong Kar-wai...

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wednesday, 3 september 2025

Reality in cinema

There is undoubtedly a return to what we might call cinema of reality. Even fiction and auteur films are increasingly engaging with real events, contemporary life, and the major issues we face every day: wars, climate change, social tensions, discrimination, populism, authoritarianism...

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tuesday, 2 september 2025

Rejecting the regime

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monday, 1 september 2025

Kim&Marilyn

Kim Novak was one of the major icons of the Hollywood star system, comparable to Marilyn Monroe, but with a crucial difference. Both of them went through similar processes: the studios forced them to change their hair colour, their name, turning them into sex symbols against their will...

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sunday, 31 august 2025

The nature of power

Paul Dano’s portrayal is remarkable. He delivers an interpretation of such nuance and precision that, at times, we almost feel sympathy for a character capable of horrifying actions...

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saturday, 30 august 2025

The film of his life

For the Mexican director, Frankenstein is the film of his life. It’s a project he’s dreamed of for years, a version of Frankenstein that has inspired many of his other works, particularly his other “monsters.” This is a film he has longed to make but was unable to, due to the high production costs. Thanks to Netflix’s resources, this long-awaited project has finally come to life...

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friday, 29 august 2025

Global horizons

The Orizzonti program includes films from all over the world, even from areas that are often completely unknown to us. This reinforces the idea that this line-up is able to present a truly open and inclusive picture of the current state of global cinema...

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thursday, 28 august 2025

A higher form of truth

I believe we can confidently say that Werner Herzog is the greatest living documentary filmmaker. Beyond that, he is the one who has definitively shattered all the boundaries between documentary and fictional cinema. He is a director who has seamlessly blended forms, languages, and aesthetics...

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wednesday, 27 August 2025

Mirror of the World

Cinema remains an extraordinary form of entertainment. It celebrates beauty and invites us to lose ourselves in a kind of ecstasy. But at the same time, it is also a powerful tool for understanding the world, for engaging with the present, and ultimately for exploring ourselves. In doing so it has a unique capacity that other art forms are missing...

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