MedFilm Festival

Cinema that unites the shores of the Mediterranean

The MedFilm Festival is the oldest film event in the city of Rome and the only Italian festival entirely dedicated to Euro-Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cinema. Founded in 1995, it takes place every year in November in the Municipality of Rome, capital of the Lazio Region, enlivening cinemas and cultural venues throughout the historic center and beyond. Its mission is to promote the infinite variety of identities, languages, and cultures that characterize the shores of the Mare Nostrum, using the big screen as a space for dialogue between different peoples, memories, and perspectives.

International competitions and sections

The heart of the festival lies in its international competitions, which span fiction, documentary, animation, and experimental cinema. The "Amore e Psiche" Official Competition is reserved for international feature films, while the "Methexis" Competition awards the best short films from across the Mediterranean basin. Alongside the competitions, there are non-competitive sections, focuses on specific national cinemas, historical retrospectives, and tributes to authors and masters.

• International feature film competition
• International short film competition
• Premieres, special events, and event screenings
• Retrospectives and tributes to directors and film industries

More than just screenings

The MedFilm Festival is also a meeting place for the public and professionals. The program includes meetings with young talents and great masters of cinema, university masterclasses, book presentations, and conferences, as well as screenings dedicated to socially fragile contexts such as correctional facilities. The festival also hosts the MedMeetings, the festival's professional platform dedicated to project development, divided into the MedWips (work-in-progress fiction and documentaries) and MedPitching (projects in development) sections.

A festival of awards and commitment

Each edition presents awards to competing works and special prizes that celebrate the careers and iconic figures of cinema and civil engagement. Over the years, the festival has hosted established and emerging directors from dozens of countries, confirming itself as a privileged observatory on cinema that addresses the crucial themes of our time: identity, migration, rights, memory, and peace.

Rome, capital of Mediterranean cinema

With over thirty years of history, the MedFilm Festival represents an unmissable appointment for fans of auteur cinema and anyone wishing to discover the most significant works from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Screenings are distributed across various cinemas and cultural spaces in Rome, making the Capital, for eleven days in November, the meeting point for Mediterranean cultures.