The 16th edition of Cinema Made in Italy will launch at BFI Southbank on Wednesday 4 March, showcasing a selection of 10 new Italian productions plus a digital restoration of the 1959 classic title The Facts of Murder (Un Maledetto Imbroglio), directed by Pietro Germi and starring the late Claudia Cardinale.
Four of the titles in this year’s line-up are directed by female filmmakers, including the closing night film Three Goodbyes (Tre Ciotole) by the prolific Catalan filmmaker Isabel Coixet, starring Alba Rohrwacher and Elio Germano.
Coixet’s latest feature is based on the best-selling novel by Michela Murgia and scored key sales following its 2025 Toronto premiere.
As always, screenings will be followed by filmmaker Q&A sessions, giving viewers the chance to become engaged in lively discussions.
The opening night film, Primavera, is directed by the renowned opera director Damiano Michieletto and stars Michele Riondino, recently seen in Billie August’s mini-series adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, and Tecla Insolia, who has been selected as one of the 10 emerging acting talents for European Shooting Stars 2026.
Drawing on the real life of Antonio Vivaldi, the film had its world premiere at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival and will be distributed in the UK by Curzon Film on 24 April.
The screenplay was co-written with Ludovica Rampoldi, one of Italy’s leading screenwriters, known for The Traitor and Gomorrah.
This London premiere of Primavera coincides with Vivaldi’s birthday, who was born on 4 March 1678. The screening will be preceded by Bruno Bozzetto’s transfixing Grasshoppers (Cavallette), which in 1991 was an Oscar nominee for Best Animated Short.
Rampoldi will also be presenting her directorial debut A Brief Affair (Breve Storia d’Amore), starring Valeria Golino (The Morning Show).
The award-winning actress is also the lead in Mario Martone’s literary biopic Fuori, about noted Italian feminist writer and political activist Goliarda Sapienza (author of The Art of Joy), which screened in competition at last year’s Cannes International Film Festival, and Nicolangelo Gelormini’s dark fable Gioia (La Gioia), which was in the 2025 Venice International Film Festival’s Venice Days section.
Two other titles which had their premieres on the Venice Lido are Elisa, directed by Leonardo Di Costanzo, and Laura Samani’s well-received second film A Year of School (Un Anno di Scuola).
Another debut feature in the line-up is Margherita Spampinato’s Sweetheart (Gioia Mia), which premiered at the 78th Locarno Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize and lead actress Aurora Quattrocchi was awarded the Pardo for Best Performance.
Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis bring their playful Euro-western Heads or Tails? (Testa o Croce?), starring John C. Reilly, which screened to critical acclaim in this year’s Un Certain Regard strand in Cannes, along with Francesco Sossai’s soulful gem The Last One for the Road (Le Città di Pianura), which will be released in the UK by Bulldog Film Distribution in spring 2026.
The five-day annual event is organised by Cinecittà, the British Film Institute, with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute in London. The films were selected by Adrian Wootton OBE, CEO of Film London.
Ticket sales open for the general public today (15 January) – more details are available on the BFI website.
