Contemporanea Film Festival 2026
Date of the event:
From Tuesday 3 to Saturday 7 November 2026 Turin hosts the Contemporanea Film Festival, a festival of cinema and visual arts dedicated to women who work behind and in front of the camera. The event is organised by Distretto Cinema, in collaboration with the National Cinema Museum (Museo Nazionale del Cinema) and the Turin Piedmont Film Commission [1].
Programme
The fifth edition offers five days of previews, restored classics, video art works and meetings with the filmmakers, together with a competition for emerging women directors. Preview titles include “La Gradiva” by Marine Atlan, winner of the Grand Prize of the Cannes Film Festival's Semaine de la Critique and the festival's opening film, and “Blue Heron” by Sophy Romvari, awarded Best Debut at the Locarno Film Festival [1].
The programme also includes a portrait of Carla Lonzi directed by Francesca Archibugi and a closing evening dedicated to Roberta Torre, who previews her film “Scarpe rotte” (“Worn-out Shoes”), starring Barbara Ronchi and Mersila Sokoli [1].
The face of this edition: Claudia Cardinale
The face of the fifth edition is Claudia Cardinale, remembered through “Soggettiva Claudia Cardinale”, a programme curated by her daughter Claudia Squitieri that traces the actress's career from her debut to international acclaim. The festival's artistic direction, led by Giulia Magno and Fulvio Paganin, described the retrospective as a dialogue between past and present [1].
The festival opens on Tuesday 3 November at the Cinema Massimo with the restored version of “La ragazza di Bube” by Luigi Comencini. On the following days, at the Cinema Lux, several titles from Cardinale's filmography are screened, including “Il bell'Antonio” by Mauro Bolognini, “La ragazza con la valigia” by Valerio Zurlini and “Un maledetto imbroglio” by Pietro Germi [1].
On Friday 6 November Claudia Squitieri guides the audience through a story about her mother, before the screening of the restored version of “Once Upon a Time in the West” by Sergio Leone. Also on the programme is “Un Cardinale donna” by Manuel Maria Perrone, a short film made for the retrospective that New York's MoMA dedicated to the actress [1].
Talks and themes
The festival includes a schedule of talks on themes related to gender equality and the impact of artificial intelligence on creative professions, as noted by artistic director Fulvio Paganin [1].
Sources
- TorinoToday — 3 November 2026