The beloved annual Italian film festival marks its 40th edition this March with an especially strong line‑up
Well off the tourist trails, the Espace Magnan community and arts centre in Nice is one of the locals’ favourite spots. And every year in March, a good portion of them faithfully appear when the annual Italian film festival opens its doors, which is hardly surprising in a city where a significant share of the population has Italian roots.
This year, the festival celebrates its 40th edition from 14 through 28 March with seventeen films in total, including nine that have not yet been released in France. Some titles were major box‑office hits in Italy in 2025, others put a strong emphasis on emerging voices. The works of acclaimed auteurs and new talent sit comfortably side by side. Curated around a clear through‑line rather than simply importing a handful of titles that will soon appear on streaming platforms, the festival does not shy away from complex social themes or politics, but always does so in typical, unmistakable Italian style.
Video via EspaceMagnan YouTube channel
The three highlights frame very different visions of the country. Paolo Sorrentino’s La grazia introduces a fictional President nearing the end of his mandate, alone with his grief and with decisions that will test both his political resolve and his humanity. Gabriele Mainetti’s La città proibita opens the festival with an audacious blend of Roman mafia intrigue, romance and meticulously choreographed kung‑fu, an Italian genre hybrid unlikely to surface in a regular release schedule. And Gabriele Salvatores’s Napoli‑New York, built on an old script by Fellini and Pinelli, follows two children in post‑war Naples who dream of slipping away to America, and in doing so turns a story from another era into a finely judged fable about migration and the pull of elsewhere.
Beyond the three headliners, there are several layers of interest. There is a distinct focus on intimate, socially engaged stories: Il mio posto è qui revisits rural Calabria through women’s and LGBTQ+ perspectives; Il ragazzo dai pantaloni rosa tackles the mechanics of harassment and cyber‑bullying based on a real case; and Diamanti and FolleMente both explore contemporary relationships and female solidarity in more accessible, crowd‑pleasing forms. The programme also offers rare genre experiments like Testa o croce?, an off‑beat “Italian western” inspired by Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and the restored Palombella rossa embedded in a conference on political cinema, which anchors the new films in a longer Italian cinematic tradition.
Still from Il ragazzo dai pantaloni rosa
Still from Ciao Bambino
Other films also trace a line through Italian history and politics, without ever feeling schematic. The unification of Italy in the nineteenth century, the grey zones of foreign policy in Iraq, the social shifts of the post‑war years in Calabria, the pressures of school and online bullying in today’s classrooms: each theme appears not as a lecture topic, but as the lived experience of characters who might be neighbours, relatives or colleagues. Emerging filmmakers are invited to present their work in person, answer questions and test their ideas in front of a local audience. On top of that, almost all screenings are participatory: audiences vote for a Prix du Public, while a structured Jury Jeune involving lycée and university students awards its own prize, so spectators are treated as contributors rather than passive viewers.
Still from il mio posto è qui
Still from Gioia Mia
The festival is also designed as a broader cultural rendezvous rather than a simple screening schedule. A CliCiak exhibition devoted to Italian set photography, an oenology workshop focused on Italian wines linked to the films’ regions, a pop‑up Italian grocery in the Espace Magnan foyer, and partnerships with local associations and the Cinémathèque de Nice extend the experience beyond Espace Magnan’s walls. Opening and closing ceremonies bookend the event. For audiences, you can drop in for a single film and still feel part of a larger Italian cultural moment, or build an entire weekend around cinema, food and conversation.
When festival programmer Marie‑France Leccia speaks of “four decades of passion for Italian cinema… but also 40 years of enjoyment and exchange alongside our Italy‑loving and film‑loving audiences”, it reinforces exactly what the annual event is all about: the joy of great movies, a shared experience, and an ongoing exchange. Ever since its first edition, the Journées du Cinéma Italien has remained a modestly scaled but remarkably rich occasion to encounter Italy as it imagines itself today: questioning, playful, serious, and sometimes all of these at once. Passing the poster at Espace Magnan without stepping inside would feel like missing a chat with a friendly neighbour.
VISITOR INFORMATION
40es Journées du Cinéma Italien / 40ime Giornate del cinema italiano
14 – 28 March 2026
16 films in Italian original version with French subtitles, one animated film in original version, not subtitled.
For programme details and show times please consult the brochure
Online reservation strongly recommended
VENUE DETAILS
Espace Magnan
31, rue Louis de Coppet
06000 Nice
Tel : 04.93.86.28.75
PHOTO CREDITS
- All photos and images courtesy Espace Magnan
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