HIGHLIGHTS
Florence
11 – 15 November 2026
Cinema La Compagnia and other venues
Opening night featuring the Italian premiere of Euphoria by Julian Rosefeldt.
Focus on Saodat Ismailova, one of the most innovative artists of her generation, whose practice lies at the intersection of cinema, sound and visual art.
Throughout the Festival, the exhibition Scénarios et les cinq cahiers de Scénario by Jean-Luc Godard will be presented, bringing together for the first time in Italy five notebooks created by Jean-Luc Godard between May 2019 and October 2021, along with his final two films.
Italian premieres include BORDERLAND by Melik Ohanian, Homecoming by Yarema Malashchuk & Roman Khimei, The Sentinel by Ali Cherri, and like moths to light by Gala Hernández López, produced with the support of the VISIO Production Fund.
Also confirmed: streaming on MYmovies ONE, the Under 30 Audience Award, and free admission for visitors under 30.
Piazza Pitti, Florence
June 22 and July 6, 13 & 20, 2026, 9:45 PM
Free admission, subject to venue capacity.
From June 22 to July 13, 2026, the 16th edition of Notti di mezza estate returns, presenting a selection of artists’ films and documentaries on contemporary art. The programme, curated by Lo schermo dell’arte, takes place in the remarkable setting of Piazza Pitti as part of Apriti Cinema, within the Estate Fiorentina summer festival.
All films are screened in their original language with Italian and English subtitles.
Due to bad weather, the screening of Bouchra has been moved to Cinema La Compagnia on July 20 at 7:00 PM.
Florence, November 11–15, 2026
The open call for the 15th edition of VISIO closed on May 15.
More than 140 applications were received from 53 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Myanmar, Canada, China, Colombia, South Korea, Finland, Ghana, India, Iran, Lithuania, Nigeria, Peru, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, and Yemen.
More than half of the applications were submitted by women artists.
VISIO includes the VISIO Production Fund, a €35,000 production grant. Among the applicants, eight artists will be selected to take part in the programme, while three will receive production support to develop new works in collaboration with Leonardo Bigazzi and the Lo schermo dell’arte team.
The eight selected artists will be announced in September 2026.
The call for applications for the 15th edition of VISIO is now open: applications must be submitted by Friday, May 15, 2026.
VISIO includes the VISIO Production Fund, a €35,000 production fund. Eight artists will be selected, and the funds will be awarded to three of them, who will work with Leonardo Bigazzi and the Lo schermo dell’arte team to produce their works and premiere them at the 2027 Festival.
Project developed as part of the National Plan for Cinema and Images for Schools 2025/2026, promoted by the Italian Ministry of Culture (MiC) and the Ministry of Education and Merit (MiM), with the aim of encouraging young people to engage with cinematic language and moving images.
Between January and May 2026, artists Marina Arienzale, Veronica Citi, Roberto Fassone and Giacomo Raffaelli, Agnese Galiotto, Lori Lako, Claudia Losi, Francesco Puppo, and educator Chiara Tognolotti conducted workshops for primary and lower secondary school students from the I.C. Pirandello in Florence, the I.C. Pelago and the I.C. Teresa Mattei in Bagno a Ripoli, alongside professional development activities for teachers.
In addition to the workshops, the project included a film programme, Lo schermo dell’arte YOUNG, aimed at primary and lower secondary school students from the three participating institutions.
The screenings were introduced by Milo Adami, filmmaker and lecturer at ISIA Urbino, CIPS trainer and founder of the association 24FPS.
The streaming channel of Lo schermo dell’arte, dedicated to artist cinema and documentaries on contemporary artists, is now available on MYmovies ONE.
This collection features films that successfully straddle genres, as presented in various editions of the festival, focusing on the use of moving images and urgent contemporary issues.
These films include portraits of famous figures in the art world, rediscovered personalities who are little known or have fallen into oblivion, narratives of well-known or distant events, and stories that introduce us to the thoughts and practices of artists and curators, accompanying us through the process of creation.
Italy geolocated only.
NEWS
The exhibition Armin Linke: The City as Archive. Florence extended until February 15, 2026
At the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max Planck Institute, at Palazzo Budini Gattai, the exhibition Armin Linke: The City as Archive. Florence will be open to visitors until February 15 instead of January 31.
The exhibition offers a compelling and critical reading of Florence through photographs by artist and filmmaker Armin Linke alongside historical documentary photographs from the Institute’s Photo Library.
The exhibition path explores archives, museums, and collections from twenty institutions outside the city’s usual tourist circuits, including the State Archives, the Museo Galileo, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, and the Italian Geographic Military Institute.
Afternoon Hearsay by Peng Zuqiang screened at Rotterdam
Afternoon Hearsay (2025; China, UK, Italy; 19′) by Peng Zuqiang, produced by Lo schermo dell’arte in collaboration with the Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci thanks to the VISIO Production Fund, will be screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Breaking the Frame program on January 31 and February 1, with the director in attendance.
The film reconstructs the history of the 8.75 mm film format, a unique format developed and produced exclusively in China between the 1960s and 1980s. Using camera-less techniques and photochemical abstraction, Peng reflects on disappearance and memory, asking: what is a film without a camera?
Congratulations, Peng!
like moths to light by Gala Hernández López at the International Film Festival Rotterdam
We are pleased to announce that like moths to light (2026; France, Spain, Italy; 26′) by Gala Hernández López will compete at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, in the Tiger Short Competition, where it will have its world premiere.
Blending documentary and fiction, the film follows young women navigating online spaces as sites of self-representation and work, highlighting the ambiguities of the attention economy and the power dynamics that shape contemporary image production.
like moths to light was produced by Lo schermo dell’arte and Fondazione In Between Art Film thanks to the VISIO Production Fund, following Gala’s participation in the 13th edition of VISIO – European Programme on Artists’ Moving Images.
Good luck, Gala!