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The most prestigious guest will be the Polish director Jan Komasa, already nominated for an Oscar. The “blessing” will come, however, from the historic producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori, who has won three Oscars. And then the tributes to Roberto Rossellini and Massimo Troisi, thematic focuses on Palestine and Iran, masterclasses and talents from Messina. These are the main ingredients of the Messina International Film Festival, which returns “home”, that is, to that place that was once the Messina Fair and today is the recently inaugurated Agora of the Strait. As the days pass, the event program is enriched with details, the result of the initiative of the artistic director Francesco Cannavà, in collaboration with Davide Liotta’s Arb Group and with the support of the Municipality and the Messina Foundation for Culture. Event which will take place from 26 July to 1 August, concluding on the very day in which, in 1955, the first, historic exhibition was inaugurated.
At the base of the event there is an all-Messina teamwork: in addition to Liotta’s Arb, who is the production director of the Rassegna, the Messina production house 8 Road Film founded by Renata Giuliano, UniMe Dams, UniVersoMe, Colapesce Studio, Agenzia Pvk Produzioni Video and Circolo della Borsa.
During the week, five feature films will be presented in competition, coming from important national and international festivals, from the Cannes Film Festival to the Rome Independent Film Festival, passing through Nueva Ola, the festival dedicated to Spanish and Latin American cinema in Italy, which will be joined by a competition dedicated to Italian short films. All works selected by the artistic director Cannavà. The opening evening will open with an exclusive video interview with Cecchi Gori, who will remember the magic of the set of “Il Postino”, filmed between Pollara and Malfa, in Salina. «It is my duty – explains Cannavà –, with the rebirth of the Rassegna, to remember and pay homage to Massimo Troisi, a Neapolitan genius, and the last film of his career, which was also the last film set in Sicily to win an Oscar».
There will be a double appointment with the Polish director Jan Komasa: on the afternoon of July 26th, at the Apollo Cinema, he will present a preview of his latest film Good Boy, in the evening he will meet the audience of the Festival in conversation with the film critic Franco Cicero, member of the National Union of Italian Film Journalists. Among the guests also the director Roberta Torre, while the actor and director Ninni Bruschetta, the set designer Marco Dentici and the actor Giuseppe De Domenico will represent the Messina excellences of the national film industry.
“Rossellini. Più di una vita”, a documentary winner of the David di Donatello 2026, directed by Ilaria De Laurentiis, Raffaele Brunetti (who will be present) and Andrea Paolo Massara, will be screened. And then two international focuses are planned, one dedicated to Palestine, with a selection of short films in collaboration with the Nazra Palestine Short Film Festival, and one to Iran, with the involvement of the community of Iranian students present in Messina.