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With the 2026 Horcynus Orca Award, awarded in memory of the philosopher Edgar Morin and the great director of photography Carlo Di Palma and the film producer Adriana Chiesa Di Palma, the XXIV edition of the Horcynus Festival kicks off on Saturday 18 July, scheduled until 2 August.
Promoted by the Horcynus Orca Foundation and the MeSSInA Foundation and directed by Franco Jannuzzi and Giacomo Farina, the event inaugurates its XXIV edition with the theme “Eutopies. One planet, one humanity”, with a path that intertwines cinema, music, visual arts, education and civil reflection to question the great challenges of our time. The 2026 edition will involve Messina, Novara di Sicilia, Roccavaldina and Mirabella Imbaccari, confirming the Festival’s vocation to bring territories, communities and cultures into dialogue.
The inaugural event is set, as usual, at the Horcynus Orca Park in Capo Peloro, where the public will be welcomed at 9.00 pm by the concert of the Big Band of the “Arcangelo Corelli” Conservatory of Messina, directed by Samuel Mortellaro and Rita Collura.
The 2026 Horcynus Orca Prize will be awarded in memory of Edgar Morin and Carlo Di Palma, two personalities who have marked, each in their own field, contemporary thought and the history of international culture and to the film producer Adriana Chiesa Di Palma, life partner of the maestro Carlo Di Palma, who will be present at the event. The evening will be dedicated to the memory of Ninni Panzera, a reference figure of Messina culture.
“Opening this edition of the Horcynus Festival with a tribute to Edgar Morin and Carlo Di Palma means paying homage to two figures who, through thought and cinema, were able to interpret the complexity of our time. The theme “Eutopias. One planet, one humanity” runs through the entire program of the Festival and finds a significant synthesis on the opening night, between music, memory and reflection. From here begins a journey which, until 2 August, will bring different artistic languages, cultures and communities into dialogue, confirming the Horcynus Festival as a space for meeting, discussion and construction of new perspectives”, declare the artistic directors Franco Jannuzzi and Giacomo Farina.
After the opening evening, on Sunday 19 July at 7.00 pm the Festival will pay homage to Carlo Di Palma with the screening of the documentary “Water and sugar: Carlo Di Palma, the colors of life” by Fariborz Kamkari. The Horcynus Summer School dedicated to the conservation and restoration of contemporary art and the Arcipelago della Visione film festival will begin on July 20th with the retrospective on Carlo Di Palma, Director of Photography in some of Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterpieces and Open Space, dedicated to Sicilian short films. On July 26th there will be space for the Pelorias Sea Sound Fest, curated by Tuma Records, while on July 27th it will be the turn of Mare di Cinema Arabo. From 28 to 30 July, however, the Festival will host La Nueva Ola, created in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes of Palermo and enriched by the Audience Award for the Spanish and Latin American section. Also for the Lateral Archipelagos section, the public will be asked to vote for the experimental short films in competition. Plus the Design Jurnates curated by the KOMAD collective and numerous meetings with directors, artists and international guests.
The 2026 edition will also pay homage to great protagonists of world cinema, such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Carlo Di Palma, Isao Takahata, Jim Jarmusch and Mario Camerini, confirming the international vocation of the Horcynus Festival and its ability to bring art, research and social innovation into dialogue.
All events are free to enter.
Until 6.00 pm and until all available spaces are available, it is possible to book a free parking space at the Torri Morandi ATM.
For information and reservations: (email protected)