The Italian Film Festival celebrates its first decade with the 2025 programme, which is showing throughout September at Lumière Cinemas. To mark the occasion, Artistic Director Paolo Rotondo has curated 25 films ranging from gripping dramas to heartwarming comedies. 

Here at the Cityscape office, we’ve pored over the programme and come up with our top 5 picks for the festival. Goditela!

Il Boemo (The Bohemian)

For lovers of opera, this film by director Petr Václav celebrating little-known Czech composer Josef Mysliveček is a real treat, with the opera scenes and music recorded by the Czech ensemble Collegium 1704 led by Václav Luks. And even if you don’t love opera, you will swoon over the costumes and grand palaces in which this sumptuous film is set. Mysliveček was a contemporary of Mozart and shared his friend’s penchant for a dramatic personal life as he plied his musical talents in the courts of Venice, Florence and Naples.

Posso Entrare (An Ode to Naples)

This warts-and-all doco captures the stunning beauty as well as the seedy underbelly of Italy’s most maligned city. British filmmaker Trudy Styler does a deep dive into Naples’ history of invasions and resistance, from its Greek founders through to the campaigns of conquest of the Byzantines, Normans, French, Spanish and Nazis. Leavening the mix are interviews with noted Neapolitans such as author Roberto Saviano and actor Francesco Di Leva. The perfect aperitivo to your next Italian adventure.

The Treasure of his Youth: The Photographs of Paolo di Paolo

Celebrated fashion and celebrity photographer Bruce Weber turned first detective then film director after coming across the work of Paolo di Paolo, photographer and friend in the 1950s and ‘60s of Italy’s most glamorous stars. Paolo’s work was largely forgotten until Weber tracked down the now 94-year-old and recorded his stories of photographing Marcello Mastroianni, Sofia Loren, Pasolini, Visconti, Bertolucci, Rudolf Nureyev, Charlotte Rampling and many more. A must for any fan of photography, fashion or la dolce vita.

Confidenza (Trust)

Forget I ever said that. If you can. This adaptation of a novel by Domenico Starnone explores what happens when a secret shared brings an irrevocable shift in a relationship. High school professor Pietro (Elio Germano) and student Teresa (Federica Rossellini) fall into bed together years after being teacher and pupil but a game of Truth or Dare changes everything between them. “The performances are masterfully complex as secrets and regrets tighten around the protagonist,” says Paolo Rotondo.

L’immensità

Penelope Cruz is the star turn in this homage to Rome in the 1970s, a time of rapid change as Italy shucks off its conservative straitjacket in favour of florals and legal divorce. Cruz plays a mamma caught in an unhappy marriage. Meanwhile, her daughter, Adrian, wants to identify as Adi, a boy. The themes are deep but the tone is upbeat and the whole thing looks gorgeous.

www.italianfilmfestivalnz.com