Past Event: 18th Annual Festival of New Italian Cinema-- April 24-27, 2025

Thursday, April 24, 7:30 pm
“Io, capitano” (Io, capitano)
Matteo Garrone (2023) - [2h 1m]

In Io, capitano, the acclaimed filmmaker Matteo Garrone (Gomorra, Reality) confronts the exodus of African migrants to the “promised land”,
shedding the European perspective and endowing a Senegalese teenager, Seydou (who escapes alongside his cousin Moussa), with an admirable, yet
deeply painful insiders’ point-of-view. The film follows Seydou from Dakar through a harrowing Sahara passage, followed by an oasis of friendship with a
fellow refugee, imprisonment in Libya and finally to the waters off of Sicily. Beautifully photographed and brilliantly enacted, the film burns with
moral urgency and extreme suffering in occasionally graphic scenes for which viewer discretion is advised.

Friday, April 25, 7:30 pm
“Campo di battaglia” (Battleground)
Gianni Amelio (2024) - [1h 44m]

The year is 1918. In an Italy beset by regional divisions, World War I, and the Spanish flu, doctors Stefano and Giulio treat wounded soldiers returning from the front lines. As their military hospital overflows with patients, opposing politics threaten to tear their friendship apart. With historically-informed set design and costume, Gianni
Amelio's Battlefield dramatizes the First World War like no Italian film before it. Thrust into a complex era of strife and dissent, viewers encounter a compelling
representation of wartime humanity. How many self-inflicted injuries or sacrifices lie on the road to national and personal salvation? How will two doctors diagnose and combat the ills that plague Italians and their republic?

Saturday, April 26, 7:30 pm
“C'è ancora domani" (There's Still Tomorrow)
Paola Cortellesi (2023) [1h 58m]

In her directorial debut, Paola Cortellesi puts together a tender drama in C’è ancora domani. The film addresses the adversity faced by many Italian families in the wake of WW II. Set against this precarious backdrop of postwar Rome, an era fraught with uncertainty, the film follows the life of Delia Santucci (Paola Cortellesi), a mother of three children and wife of an abusive husband. Delia tirelessly works to navigate the economic difficulty and her husband’s temper, holding on to her own voice and taking take a stand when and where it matters most. C’è ancora domani reminds us that even in the darkest moments, there’s still tomorrow. With stellar performances and a captivating narrative Cortellesi puts forward a universally acclaimed film that reframes neorealism, a traditionally male-dominated school of Italian cinema, from a woman’s perspective.

Sunday, April 27, 4:00 pm
“Il treno dei bambini” (The Children's Train)
Cristina Comencini (2024) - [2h 5m]

Set in the turbulent years following the Second World War, this film tells the moving story of Amerigo, a young boy from Naples, who is sent by his mother
Antonietta to Northern Italy. The trip is sponsored as part of an initiative promoted by the Italian Communist Party, with the aim of offering underprivileged children
from the South a chance at a better life. As Amerigo boards the train bound for an unfamiliar world, he also embarks on a journey through a divided country that will
lead him to explore intimate questions of identity, memory, and belonging. With a compelling narrative and powerful performances, Il treno dei bambini delivers a
deeply emotional message about resilience, the trials and joys of navigating family relations, and the bittersweet experience of growing up that touches all the right
chords of nostalgia and fellow feeling.

All films are in Italian with English subtitles

The screenings are free and open to the public

Seating is first-come-first-served basis

Theatre opens 30 minutes before screening