The fourth day of the Festival directed by director Francesco Cannavà (29 July Wednesday) is dedicated to the “Memory of the glorious International Film Festival of Messina and of the historic cinemas of Messina born in those years”. The wonderful context of the Fiera Park – Agorà dello Stretto will experience an amarcord moment starting from 9.30 pm with the projection of the original images of the Istituto Luce. Gabriele De Pasquale, winner of the YoungMe award in the successful Rtp program “The Stage”, will accompany on the sax the images on the screen of the shots taken by the photographers who immortalized the historic event.
Guest of honor – through a video interview conducted by film critic Franco Cicero in Rome – will be the film producer, three times Oscar winner, Vittorio Cecchi Gori, who will talk about his most important film productions, focusing in particular on the film “The Postman” shot in Salina in the Aeolian Islands.
The amarcord will continue through testimonies and memories. The writer Geri Villaroel and the entrepreneur Gianni Raimondo will alternate, Dora Bellamacina (representing Giovanni Bellamacina, owner of the historic “Savoia” cinema), the representatives of the Ballo family (to remember Commendatore Michele Ballo, President of the Provincial Tourist Board, responsible for the international launch of the Review), the journalist Emilio Pintaldi (son of the photographer Aldo Pintaldi) and the photographers Maricchiolo (father and son), to whom they have many memorable shots. You can follow the video contributions of Ubaldo Vinci (whose name is linked to one of the most significant and long-lived film clubs in the city) and Giuseppe Starrantino (who was responsible for the strenuous resistance to save the Lux cinema).
The representatives of the historic cinemas of Messina will also take to the stage Carmelo Elio Starrantino (son of the owner of the Lux), Angela Paratore and Francesco Torre (Cineforum Orione) and Fabrizio La Scala (Cinema Apollo) who will contribute to reconstructing the history of the cinemas of Messina, very numerous and loved by the people of Messina.
The evening will then come alive with a jolt of adrenaline thanks to deejay Helen Brown, member of the jury of The Stage, recently awarded at the “Dance Music Awards 2026”: the vintage and fun surprise will be the revival of 90s vinyl records.
The competition
The Agora of the Strait will also be the perfect setting for the fourth film in competition “La Dernière Rive” by Jean-Francois Ravagnan (Belgium, France, Qatar – 2025 – 71′). The video of a young man from Gambia drowning in the waters of the Grand Canal in Venice goes viral on social media. From the shore, some passers-by insult him without intervening. Filmed with a phone, his body stiffened by the cold slowly disappears into the waves, while the life jackets thrown towards him float in vain. He was 22 years old, his name was Pateh Sabally. Four thousand kilometers away, the voices and faces of his family tell of life before the tragedy: a story of broken dreams, loneliness and forgotten humanity, which asks to be heard.
The film will be preceded by “Antonino” by Angelo Campolo, a short film in competition at the Festival. The director (and actor) from Messina will present his work inspired by real experiences he lived. In a theater workshop with kids undergoing judicial probation, Matteo, actor and director, clashes with Antonino, the most rebellious of the group. From their conflict arises a harsh but necessary confrontation, which opens up the possibility of change for both. The film falls within the scope of the “Free to Choose” program promoted by judge Roberto Di Bella: “The story arises from the conflict with a teenager who seemed to reject every attempt at a relationship. “During my first theater workshop with boys being ‘tested’, – says Campolo – I often found myself wondering whether it was worth persisting or giving up. It’s a doubt that many teachers, educators or trainers in general know well: that moment when everything seems to collapse, you lose the sense of what you’re doing and you wonder if your way of approaching kids is the right one. I like to think that ‘Antonino’ tells the story of the thin line between failure and possibility, between those who try to convey something and those who, on the other side, don’t seem to want to listen. In this sense it is a story that belongs to those who work with children, but also to the children themselves, because it highlights the effort and beauty of questioning oneself again, learning to accept the value of a defeat to open up paths to new possibilities”.
The jury for feature films is made up of Franco Cicero (president), Cettina Donato, Nino Genovese, Dario Tomasello and Federico Vitella.
The jury for the short films is made up of students from the Dams of Messina.