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Photo “Aldo Pintaldi Archive”
After years of absence, the Messina international film festival comes back to life. Founded in 1955, one of the oldest Italian cinematographic events and the longest running in Sicily, the historic festival will take place from 26 July to 1 August 2026, bringing the city back to the center of the cultural panorama of the Mediterranean.
Promoted by 8 Road Film and the ARB Cultural Association, with the support of the Municipality of Messina and the Messina Foundation for Culture, the event aims to combine memory and innovation, proposing itself as a meeting place between authors, sector professionals, students and the public.
The rebirth edition will open with the participation of the Polish director nominated for an Oscar Jan Komasa and with an exclusive video interview with the producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori, protagonist of a story dedicated to his career and the link between the historic Messina festival and The Postmanthe film shot partly in the Aeolian Islands and awarded three Oscars.
The program includes five feature films in competition from important international festivals, a competition reserved for Italian short films and a series of meetings with protagonists of contemporary cinema. The guests also include the director Roberta Torre, the actor and director Ninni Bruschetta, the set designer Marco Dentici and the actor Giuseppe De Domenico.
Special events include the screening of the documentary Rossellini. More than one lifewinner of the David di Donatello 2026, in homage to the great master of Neorealism and his connection with the Messina area.
The event will also dedicate two international focuses, one on Palestine, in collaboration with the Nazra Palestine Short Film Festival, and one on Iran, involving the community of Iranian students present in Messina, with the aim of promoting dialogue through the language of cinema.
Ample space will also be reserved for training, with two masterclasses aimed at DAMS students dedicated to television series and the relationship between cinema and women’s rights.
For mayor Federico Basile, the return of the event represents “the return to the city of an important cultural heritage”, capable of strengthening Messina’s role as a point of reference in the Mediterranean cinematographic panorama. The artistic director Francesco Cannavà is of the same opinion, underlining how the rebirth of the festival is an invitation to enhance the city’s cinematographic tradition and to build a network of collaborations with national and international entities.
The complete program of the event will be presented during a press conference announced in the next few days.
Photo “Aldo Pintaldi Archive”