Name: Rome Film Festival 2025
Start: 2025-10-15T00:00:00+0000
End: 2025-10-26T00:00:00+0000
Location: Auditorium Parco della Musica

All about the 20th edition of the Rome Film Fest

The 20th edition of Festa del Cinema, Rome’s annual famed film festival, kicks off on October 15 until October 26. The main event takes place at Auditorium Parco della Musica, adorned for the occasion with an infinite red carpet, but the Festa also spreads to other evocative locations in the capital, like MAXXI and Casa del Cinema.

The official image

The official image for the Festival’s twentieth edition is a photograph by Franco Pinna, one of the most important Italian photographers of the last century, taken on the set of Juliet of the Spirits, one of Federico Fellini’s masterpieces. The scene, dreamlike and playful, refers to Giulietta (Masina)’s memory of her beloved grandfather (Lou Gilbert) fleeing in a biplane with a captivating circus performer (Sandra Milo), chased in vain by respectable relatives and acquaintances who wish to avoid a scandal. Federico Fellini appears from behind, megaphone in hand, ready to call “Action.”

The Festa del Cinema will also commemorate Franco Pinna with three photographic exhibitions.

INSPIRATION
Best Events in Rome this autumn

Locations, programme and awards

The festival will engage the entire city of Rome – as it’s taking place in various locations. As usual, the centrepiece of the event be the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone, alongside the MAXXI and the Casa del Cinema. However, this year additional venues will be included, such as the Giulio Cesare Cinema, the Teatro Palladium, the Teatro Olimpico, and the Nuovo Cinema Aquila.

The official selection of the Rome Film Festival 2025 consists of the following sections:

Progressive Cinema Competition – Visions for Tomorrow’s World
An international competition featuring fiction films, documentaries, and animated films.
Freestyle
A non-competitive section showcasing works of free format and style, including series, music videos, films, and video art.
Grand Public
A non-competitive section dedicated to mainstream cinema.
Special Screenings
A non-competitive section.
Best of 2025
A non-competitive section featuring films from other international festivals, considered among the best of the season.
History of Cinema
A non-competitive section focusing on classic films in restored versions, tributes, and a deeper exploration of the history of Italian and international cinema.

Alongside the film program, there will be two sections dedicated to public discussions:

Paso Doble
Two filmmakers discuss themes related to cinema, its stories, and its protagonists. In 2025 it will feature Lord David Puttnam and Uberto Pasolini.

Absolute Beginners
The section in which an established filmmaker revisits the story of their debut in cinema will host, on Wednesday, October 22 at 4:30 p.m. at Sala Petrassi, a talk with Pappi Corsicato, the Neapolitan director and screenwriter.

The Masterclasses

There will be seven public masterclasses, featuring the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award recipients Richard Linklater and Jafar Panahi, directors Marco Bellocchio, Susan Seidelman, and Julien Temple, producer Jeremy Thomas, and writer-illustrator Brian Selznick.

Lifetime Achievement Awards

The Iranian director Jafar Panahi will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award on the occasion of the presentation of his new film, Un simple accident (Un semplice incidente), winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The award will be presented by Oscar-winning director Giuseppe Tornatore.

The multi-award-winning film producer Lord David Puttnam will receive the Industry Lifetime Achievement Award during the opening night. This new 2025 honor pays tribute to figures in the global film industry who have left an indelible mark on the history of the seventh art. The award will be presented by producer, director, and screenwriter Uberto Pasolini. During the Festa, three of the great producer’s films will be screened in the Cinema History section: Chariots of Fire by Hugh Hudson, Local Hero by Bill Forsyth, and The Mission by Roland Joffé.

The Jury and Awards of the Rome Film Festival

A jury, composed of professionals from the worlds of cinema, culture, and the arts – chaired this year by Paola Cortellesi – will present the following awards for the Progressive Cinema Competition:

Best Film
Grand Jury Prize
Best Director
Best Screenplay
Monica Vitti Award for Best Actress
Vittorio Gassman Award for Best Actor
Special Jury Prize, awarded in one of the following categories: cinematography, editing, original score.

The festival will also present the cross-category Best First Feature Award, selected by a separate jury from titles in the Progressive Cinema, Freestyle, and Grand Public sections.

As always, the audience will play a key role in the festival, awarding the Terna Audience Award, chosen from the films in the Progressive Cinema Competition.

READ THE PROGRAM OF THE 2025 ROME FILM FEST

Festa del cinema 2025 — Megalopolis © 2024 Caesar Film

Opening Film

The opening film of this edition will be La vita va così by Riccardo Milani, starring Virginia Raffaele, Diego Abatantuono, Aldo Baglio, Giuseppe Ignazio Loi, and Geppi Cucciari. Inspired by a true story that took place in Sardinia, the film will be presented out of competition in the Grand Public section.

Official Selection

18 are the films competing this year, under the Progressive Cinema – Visioni per il Mondo di Domani section. They are:

40 SECONDI
by Vincenzo Alfieri, Italy, 2025, 121’

L’ACCIDENT DE PIANO
by Quentin Dupieux, France, 2025, 88’

CHANG YE JIANG JIN (WILD NIGHTS, TAMED BEASTS)
by Wang Tong, China, 2025, 120’

ESTA ISLA
by Lorraine Jones Molina, Cristian Carretero, Puerto Rico, 2025, 114’

GOOD BOY
by Jan Komasa, Poland, United Kingdom, 2025, 110’

KOTA (HEN)
by György Pálfi, Germany, Greece, Hungary, 2025, 96’

LEFT-HANDED GIRL
by Shih-Ching Tsou, Taiwan, France, United States, United Kingdom, 2025, 109’

MAD BILLS TO PAY (OR DESTINY, DILE QUE NO SOY MALO)
by Joel Alfonso Vargas, United States, 2025, 101’

MISS CARBÓN
by Agustina Macri, Spain, Argentina, 2025, 94’

NINO
by Pauline Loquès, France, 2025, 97’

GLI OCCHI DEGLI ALTRI
by Andrea De Sica, Italy, 2025, 90’

OUR HERO, BALTHAZAR
by Oscar Boyson, United States, 2025, 91’

RE-CREATION
by Jim Sheridan, David Merriman, Ireland, Luxembourg, 2025, 89’

ROBERTO ROSSELLINI, PIÙ DI UNA VITA
by Ilaria de Laurentiis, Andrea Paolo Massara, Raffaele Brunetti, Italy, Latvia, 2025, 87’

SCIATUNOSTRO
by Leandro Picarella, Italy, 2025, 86’

SIX JOURS CE PRINTEMPS-LÀ
by Joachim Lafosse, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, 2025, 94’

THE THINGS YOU KILL
by Alireza Khatami, France, Poland, Canada, Turkey, 2025, 113’

WINTER OF THE CROW
by Kasia Adamik, Poland, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, 2025, 112’

…. And this is only one of the many pieces of the puzzle. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the sections in the programme and take your picks… beware, tickets sell fast!