Piedmont region guest at the Italian film festival in Madrid

Piedmont participates as a guest region in the 18th edition of the Madrid Italian Film Festival. The event, organized by the Italian Cultural Institute in the iconic Cines Callao room, is scheduled until December 7th. For a week, Madrid becomes the stage of a cultural bridge between Italy and Spain, with a rich program of Italian films, retrospectives, tributes and new sections – all a free entry and with films in the original version with subtitles.

This edition takes on a particular meaning: with the Piedmont as host region, the Festival enhances the territory and strengthens the dialogue between cultural institutions, geographical areas and audiovisual productions, celebrating the excellence of Italian cinema and consolidating the creative links between Italy and Spain. Bonds that have intensified this year thanks toOfficial Start of La Vuelta, left from Turin and Piedmont with four stages that crossed 136 municipalities for a total of 450 kilometres.An increasingly close relationship, also confirmed by other internationally important events hosted by the Piedmont area, such as the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, which brought the best tennis players in the world to the city, including number one Carlos Alcaraz.

The Piedmont Region’s desire to intensify thetourism promotion in Spainalso in light of growing interest of Spanish travelers to Piedmont: the Spanish tourist market in Piedmont is in fact the 8th in terms of arrivals and the 9th in terms of overnight stays, with 87,804 arrivals and 241,250 presences as of 2024, a average stay of 2.7 nights and a share equal to 3% of total foreign movements. Compared to 2023, there is a growth of 5.7% in arrivals and 11.5% in overnight stays, with an overall increase of over 50% in movements in the last ten years.

“Being present in Madrid is an extraordinary opportunity to tell the world about the cultural and creative vitality of Piedmont – declare the President of the Region Alberto Cirio and the councilors for Culture Marina Chiarelli and for Tourism and Sport Paolo Bongioanni, with the undersecretary Claudia Porchietto who spoke at the opening of the Festival -. Piedmont has already entered the homes of Spaniards with the live broadcasts of the Vuelta and with the exploits of Carlos Alcaraz at the Nitto ATP Finals, who also discovered and shared the quality of our cuisine. The Festival consolidates the action for enhance our landscapes, the food and wine excellences and the area’s ability to be a laboratory of innovation and an international cinematographic hub. It is an event that strengthens relations with Spain and with the global public, confirming culture and cinema, tourism, food and wine, nature and sport as strategic levers for the development and attractiveness of our region.”

“The magic of cinema was the guiding spirit that led the Madrid Italian Film Festival today to celebrate a long and important success story that has accompanied the successful season of Italian cinema abroad for 18 years – declares Elena Fontanella, director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Madrid -. This 2025 edition, which rides the future to offer the Spanish public a renewed cultural guise in the wake of the great Italian festivals, thanks to the artistic director Giulio Base who guided this with enthusiasm and professional support delicate transition. Renewed in the format with the increase of cinemas and events to spread throughout the city with the aim of developing the passion and knowledge of cinematographic culture and the Italian language and at the same time cultivating the immense and precious potential of assonance and professional dialogue with the great Spanish experience. This year Piedmont is the host region of the festivaland I am happy that Madrid can discover its territory and its excellence.”

During the Festival, the Region offers a showcase of its excellence. The public discovers them through video content in cinemas and a poster campaign in the main subway stations, which show from winter landscapes of the mountains to outdoor summer scenarios, describing the area as a travel destination, a place of culture and a destination open to the world. This visual and narrative activity is accompanied by moments of food and wine promotion, with tastings dedicated to the symbolic products of Piedmont and a gala dinner which offers a culinary journey entirely built on regional excellences.

The. contributes to further strengthening the bond between Turin and Madrid artistic direction by Giulio Baseat the helm of both the Torino Film Festival and the Madrid Festival. The closing of the TFF and the opening of the exhibition in Madrid trace an ideal continuity, from the Turin theaters to those in the heart of Spain.

“Directing the Madrid Italian Film Festival is both an honor and a joy for me. The joy then doubles because the region we have chosen to host is Piedmont, my homeland – underlines Giulio Base, artistic director of the Madrid Italian Film Festival -. It is like leading, into another home, the wind of cinema and beauty that raised me. A responsibility and a privilege that I welcome with profound gratitude”.

The festival opened yesterday with a special event attended by the undersecretary Claudia Porchietto: the music of the trumpeter Paolo Fresu, accompanied by Pierpaolo Vacca, greeted the start of the Festival and preceded the screening of Fuori di Mario Martone. The opening evening also hosted the awarding of the Lifetime Achievement Award to Monica Guerritore, who presented a Spanish preview of some songs from Anna, her directorial debut film dedicated to Anna Magnani, who she herself played.

In Madrid, the Piedmontese delegation is supported by the Torino Piemonte Film Commission and the National Cinema Museum. FCTP participates in the Festival for the first time thanks to the collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute and with the support of the Piedmont Region, presenting the regional audiovisual chain to a selected group of Spanish producers identified by the Madrid Film Office. A delegation of Piedmontese producers, together with the FCTP director, Paolo Manera, participated in the opening of the Festival and in the professional activities organized for the occasion. The B2B activities will take place today, Tuesday 2 December, at the Casa de la Panadería and include the presentation of case histories of Italy-Spain co-production, the illustration of FCTP services and funds and one-to-one meetings between Piedmontese and Madrid producers.

“Opportunities for discussion at an international level have always represented a strategic asset of the Film Commission Torino Piemonte. For this reason we welcomed with great pleasure the opportunity to be present in Madrid for the 18th edition of the Italian Film Festival, with a series of industry activities – comments director Paolo Manera, adding that – Spain is increasingly presenting itself as a leading player for the global audiovisual industry and we are certain that this mission of meetings and networking between Piedmontese and Madrid producers will be coordinated together to the Piedmont Region and the Italian Cultural Institute of Madrid – can represent a great intensification of synergies for the near future”.

“With great pleasure I will be in Madrid to promote the image of the National Cinema Museum at the Italian Film Festival, presenting the volume ‘The Temple of Cinema’, created by the Museum on the occasion of 25 years at the Mole Antonelliana and published by Allemandi – underlines Enzo Ghigo, president of the National Cinema Museum of Turin -. The volume also contains a photographic insert from which the images from the ‘Riccardo Ghilardi’ exhibition are taken. Sequence plan the Mole’, hosted at Gallerie d’Italia Turin and which portrays great protagonists of cinema within the rooms of the Mole Antonelliana: a story in images that documents and enhances the relationship between the Museum and the figures who have marked the history of the seventh art.

Also, it will be screened ‘Cinema portraits’a documentary by Paolo Civati, presented out of competition at TFF. Here nine great directors – Jane Campion, Tim Burton, Ruben Östlund, Asghar Farhadi, Pablo Larraín, Damien Chazelle, Paul Schrader, Peter Greenaway and Martin Scorsese – guests of the museum in recent years, discuss the meaning of cinema and the mechanisms that have made their language unmistakable, a way to talk about cinema and explore their filmographies, going back to the origins of their creativity. The film thus becomes a visual journey through the faces, stories and voices of great characters, ideally communicating with the volume and enriching its narrative.”