ST. ALI ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2023
The Italian Film Festival returns to Melbourne for the 2023 edition with a rich program of Italian films from the most prestigious international festivals. To learn more, please click here.
The Italian Cultural Institute actively collaborates with the festival and promotes the new Italian auteur cinema. To learn more, please click here.
THE FESTIVAL
The Italian Film Festival was founded in 2000 by Cav. Antonio Zeccola who, in one of Australia’s many migrant success stories, built Australia’s only national boutique cinema network which now encompasses twenty four cinemas and more than one hundred screens nationally.
Twenty four years ago, Antonio realised that Australia had other film festivals, but nothing dedicated to Italian cinema, and an idea was born. In November 2000 in Sydney and Melbourne, the first edition presented eleven features, five retrospective titles and five shorts, including Opening Night selection Bread and Tulips (Pane e tulipani) by Silvio Soldini and One Hundred Steps (I cento passi) directed by Marco Tullio Giordana. The event was a resounding success.
Spurred by audience demand, the second Italian Film Festival expanded nationally in 2001 to Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane, with the Opening Night selection Malena starring Monica Bellucci, the Centrepiece The Son’s Room (La stanza del figlio) directed by Nanni Moretti and Closing Night Selection The Last Kiss (L’ultimo bacio) directed by Gabriele Muccino. Since then, the festival has grown in popularity to become the biggest public celebration of Italian cinema outside Italy.
Organised entirely by Palace, a 100% Australian-owned independent family business, the festival continues to present the best new contemporary Italian cinema and most cherished classics on the big screen. For more than two decades the Festival has celebrated Italian language, culture and la dolce vita with an ever-growing audience.
Reservation no longer available