FR*CINEMA

A queer festival in the heart of Trastevere

FR*CINEMA is the queer film festival that brings the Cinema Troisi to life every spring, located at via Girolamo Induno 1, in the Trastevere district of Rome. Established in 2024 through the initiative of Arcigay Roma and organized in partnership with the Fondazione Piccolo America, the event is curated by Pietro Turano and supported by the Otto per Mille funds of the Italian Buddhist Institute Soka Gakkai. In just a few years, it has become one of the most recognizable fixtures in the LGBTQIA+ cultural landscape of the Rome Metropolitan Area and the entire Lazio region.

The format: a short, a feature, a talk

The heart of the festival lies in a simple and recognizable structure. Each evening features a short film, a feature film that has never been distributed in Italy or is rarely seen in theaters, and a talk with guests from the worlds of cinema, activism, and research. Screenings are held on a bi-weekly basis, accompanying the public throughout the Roman spring, from late March until June.

The selection prioritizes titles that have shaped the history of the LGBTQIA+ community and contemporary works that find no space in Italian commercial distribution. This is a deliberate choice: to restore the cinema hall as a collective space where imagination is built, rather than just a screen for consuming a product.

International guests

The festival has brought leading names in world queer cinema to Rome. Recent guests include French director Robin Campillo, author of 120 BPM (Beats per Minute), Céline Sciamma, who accompanied the Italian premiere of the director's cut of Tomboy, and American artist Zackary Drucker, present for the European premiere of the documentary Enigma. Alongside them, international programmers such as Bartholomew Sammut of the Berlinale, as well as Italian activists, journalists, and scholars, have participated.

Training and competition for under-35s

FR*CINEMA is more than just a series of screenings. Over the years, the festival has built a path of concrete support for young authors: a free competition reserved for those under 35, offering production grants for a fiction short film and a documentary, in addition to prizes offered by partners. Participants automatically gain access to hours of free workshops held by industry professionals on screenwriting, directing, production, and distribution. The winning works are then showcased on the Troisi screen.

Accessibility and inclusion

A focus on accessibility is a structural choice of the event. The spaces are fully accessible, films are screened in their original language with subtitles, meetings are accompanied by sign language interpreters, and free entry is provided for marginalized individuals. It is a way to make the festival truly open to everyone, consistent with the mission of Arcigay Roma.

The final evening in the square

The closing event is traditionally held as an outdoor screening in Piazza San Cosimato, as part of the Il Cinema in Piazza program curated by the Fondazione Piccolo America. The Trastevere square, free and crowded, gives the festival a popular, city-wide dimension that goes far beyond the usual cinema audience.

Why attend

For those visiting Rome in the spring, FR*CINEMA is an opportunity to connect with a vibrant cultural scene and see films otherwise unavailable in Italy, often in the presence of the authors. The Cinema Troisi, reopened after years of abandonment thanks to the work of the Piccolo America team, is an interesting destination in itself: a historic hall, an open study room, and a café, just a short walk from Viale Trastevere.