Mompeo International Short Film Festival (Mompeo in Corto)

A short film festival in the Sabina hills

The Mompeo International Short Film Festival, also known as Mompeo in Corto, takes place every summer in the municipality of Mompeo, a small village in the Province of Rieti, Lazio. It is one of the most compelling experiences to emerge in the Italian short film scene in recent years: an international short film competition hosted not in a metropolitan theater, but in the historic squares and spaces of a Sabina village, just over an hour from Rome.

The event is organized by the Associazione Solidando Cooperazione e Sviluppo ODV, an organization founded in 2004 around a traveling cinema project with a long history of cultural cooperation. The artistic direction is led by Fabio Ferzetti, one of Italy's most renowned film critics and journalists, a choice that has given the festival a solid curatorial profile since its inaugural 2023 edition.

The international competition

The heart of the MISFF is the competition reserved for short films no longer than twenty minutes, open to filmmakers from around the world via major submission platforms. Each edition revolves around a theme that guides the selection: following Re-generations in 2023, the third edition in 2025 explored Re-(e)volutions, a reflection on the tension between preserving the past and the necessity of change—a theme particularly resonant in a territory composed of villages seeking a new lease on life.

• Official selection of about fifteen finalists chosen from dozens of submitted works
• Diverse origins: Italy, Spain, Canada, Brazil, India, Ireland, Estonia, Mexico, Nigeria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Palestine, the UK, the US, Taiwan, Turkey, and Tunisia
• A non-competitive section dedicated to documentaries and works by invited authors
• Awards for the best short film and recognitions assigned by a jury of industry professionals

Beyond screenings: workshops and meetings

The festival goes beyond evening screenings. Each edition features a multi-day workshop led by a prominent filmmaker, open to young directors and enthusiasts: in 2025, director Agostino Ferrente led a lab dedicated to the dramaturgy of the real, focusing on documentary storytelling. Alongside the labs, there are public meetings, feature film presentations, and conversations with guests, which over the years have included actors like Barbora Bobulova, Barbara Chichiarelli, Donatella Finocchiaro, and directors like Claudio Giovannesi.

The village atmosphere

The main venue is Piazza Regillo, where the screen is set up for evening open-air screenings; other activities take place at the San Carlo Auditorium and within the castle and historic center. The format is that of a well-executed village festival: you arrive in the late afternoon, have dinner at one of the local trattorias or the refreshment area set up for the occasion, then head to the square for screenings starting around 9 PM. It is a very different experience from a traditional cinema, and for many spectators, this is precisely why it is worth the trip to the Sabina hills.

Mompeo and the Sabina region

Mompeo is a village of a few hundred inhabitants perched on the Sabina hills, dominated by the Palazzo Orsini-Naro and surrounded by olive groves that produce some of the most renowned extra virgin olive oil in Lazio. The area, located between Rieti and the Tiber valley, is one of the oldest olive-growing regions in Italy and preserves a dense network of small medieval centers. The festival is part of a broader cultural regeneration project for the village, supported by PNRR funds, which has led to the creation of permanent spaces dedicated to cinema, including a film archive inaugurated in 2025.

Who is it for?

The MISFF is designed for a curious audience rather than just industry insiders: the evenings are free to attend, and the short films, brief by definition, are accessible even to those who do not regularly watch arthouse cinema. For young filmmakers, it represents a concrete opportunity for exchange, both through the competition and thanks to the workshops and collaborations with other industry events like the ShorTS International Film Festival in Trieste.