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The 20th edition of Italian Film Festival arrives in Brazil on October 29, 2025, celebrating two decades of exhibition and dissemination of Italian cinematography. The event brings together a special selection that combines new premieres in the country and a retrospective of fundamental works, offering the public a comprehensive overview of the richness and diversity of Italian cinema. The Festival is a project organized by the Italian Chamber of Commerce of São Paulo – ITALCAM, in collaboration with the Italian Embassy and the Ministry of Culture.

Last week, six works by Session Retrospective were announced by the Festival: Bicycle Thievesfrom Vittorio De Sica; Paisàfrom Roberto Rossellini; Before the Revolutionfrom Bernardo Bertolucci; Love in the Cityan anthology directed by names like Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Cesare Zavattini; Sopralluoghi in Palestinefrom Pier Paolo Pasolini; and The Dinnerfrom Ettore Scola. The other six titles in the exhibition, as well as the twelve films that make up the Unreleased Sessionwill be announced soon.

Now, exclusively, six of the twelve titles that make up the Unreleased Session were revealed, showing the strength of contemporary Italian cinema. Among them are works that participated in major festivals such as Le Città di Pianurafrom Francesco Sossaia production that was part of the shortlist for the 2025 Cannes Festival; Amataproduction of Elisa Amoruso who participated in the Giornate degli Autori – Notti Veneziane, Venice Festival 2025 and Gioia Mia (Summer in Sicily), from Margherita Spampinatowhich was part of the selection for the 2025 Locarno Festival.

The list is completed by three works that have already won awards in Italy, reaffirming the vitality and international prestige of the country’s cinema. Among them is La Vita da Grandifrom Greta Scaranowinner of the Nastro d’Argento 2025 for Best New Director. Already Napoli-New Yorkfrom Gabriele Salvatoresbrings back the spirit of the masters Federico Fellini and Tullio Pinelli after winning the David di Donatello and Italian Golden Globe 2025 awards. Closing the trio, Diamondfrom Ferzan Özpetekawarded Film of the Year at Nastro d’Argento and also recognized at David di Donatello. Check out details about the productions:

“Le Città di Pianura” (The Last Round), by Francesco Sossai

Cast: Filippo Scotti, Sergio Romano, Pierpaolo Capovilla, Roberto Citran, Andrea Pennacchi
Country: Italy/Germany
Year: 2025
Duration: 100 min
Gender: Drama
Festival: Selected for the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
Carlobianchi and Doriano, two fifty-somethings adrift, share an obsession: having the last “nightcap”. One night, as they drive from one bar to another across the immense Veneto plain, they cross paths with Giulio, a young and shy architecture student. This unusual encounter with two unlikely mentors radically transforms Giulio’s vision of love, life and the future.

“La Vita da Grandi” (Brothers), by Greta Scarano

Cast: Matilda De Angelis, Yuri Tuci, Maria Amelia Monti, Paolo Hendel
Country: Italy
Year: 2025
Duration: 96 min
Gender: Comedy
Awards: Nastro d’Argento 2025 for Best Debut Director for Greta Scarano and Best Actor in a Comedy for Yuri Tuci.
Irene lives in Rome when she receives an unexpected call: she must return to Rimini to take care of her brother Omar, an adult and autistic, who has been excessively protected and is unable to be independent. Omar, however, has clear dreams — he wants to become a rap singer, get married and have three children — and asks Irene to teach him how to truly “be an adult.” In this home full of memories, the two embark on an intensive course of mutual growth, discovering that, to mature, sometimes it is necessary to be in tune with two hearts.

“Napoli-New York”, by Gabriele Salvatores

Cast: Pierfrancesco Favino, Dea Lanzaro, Antonio Guerra, Anna Ammirati, Antonio Catania
Country: Italy
Year: 2024
Duration: 124 min
Gender: Drama
Awards: Winner of the 2025 David di Donatello Awards for Best Visual Effects; Winner of the 2025 Italian Golden Globe for Best Soundtrack.
In the immediate post-war period, among the ruins of a Naples devastated by poverty, little Carmine and Celestina try to survive as best they can, always helping each other. One night, they board a ship as stowaways heading to New York, with the dream of living with Celestina’s sister, who had emigrated years before. Alongside so many other Italians in search of a better life, the two arrive in a strange metropolis, which after many challenges and discoveries, they will learn to call home.
Written from an original story by Federico Fellini and Tullio Pinelli, the film is directed by the renowned Gabriele Salvatores and marks a moving tribute to the hopes and pains of Italian immigration. A fragment of cinematographic art created by two Masters of the past comes to life at the hands of Gabriele Salvatores, heir to that Cinema.

“Gioia Mia” (Summer in Sicily), by Margherita Spampinato
Cast: Aurora Quattrocchi, Marco Fiore, Camille Dugay, Martina Ziami
Country: Italy
Year: 2025
Duration: 90 min
Gender: Drama
Festival: Selected for the Locarno Festival 2025.
Nico is a restless, irreverent and personality-filled boy, raised in a secular family, in a modern and hyperconnected world. During the summer, he is sent to Sicily to spend time with a maiden aunt, extremely religious and with a difficult temperament, who lives alone in an old mansion filled with legends and superstitions, completely outside technology.
Received with resistance, Nico is forcibly inserted into a mystical universe dominated by angels, spirits and a faith charged with magic.
The confrontation between the fast present and the silent past marks the beginning of a turbulent coexistence — but, little by little, a deep bond is born between the two that will change their lives.

“Amata” (Beloved), by Elisa Amoruso

Cast: Miriam Leone, Stefano Accorsi, Tecla Insolia, Donatella Finocchiaro
Country: Italy
Year: 2025
Duration: 100 min
Gender: Drama
Festival: Selected for the Giornate degli Autori – Notti Veneziane, Venice Festival 2025

Two lives touch each other without ever meeting, connected by invisible threads and choices that can change destinies. Nunzia is a young student who faces an unwanted pregnancy alone and needs to decide whether to keep or give up the child. In another scenario, Maddalena and her husband Luca go through the emptiness of a life without children, until a delicate and expectant possibility emerges. With an intimate and deeply human look, the film follows the intertwining of two women — fragile and combative, powerful and vulnerable — who reveal love, freedom and motherhood in their multiple forms. Around them, little Margherita appears as a third presence, suspended between different worlds, silent guardian of an invisible link that unites them without anyone noticing.

“Diamanti”, by Ferzan Özpetek

Cast: Luisa Ranieri, Jasmine Trinca, Stefano Accorsi, Luca Barbarossa, Geppi Cucciari, Vinicio Marchioni
Country: Italy
Year: 2024
Duration: 135 min
Gender: Comedy/Drama
Awards: Winner of the Nastro d’Argento award in the “Film of the Year” category; received two nominations and won a David di Donatello award.
Set in Rome in the 1970s and today, the film explores the journey of sisters Alberta and Gabriella Canova, owners of a renowned cinematic costume studio, and the skilled women who work there. The plot draws a rich tapestry of memories, solidarity, ambitions and challenges, celebrating female strength and the art of costume design in cinema. Ozpetek brings together an extraordinary cast of 18 Italian actresses in central roles. The film was awarded the Nastro d’Argento in the “Film of the Year” category, received two nominations and won a David di Donatello award.

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• Italian Film Festival

• Italian Film Festival 2025