Sezze Film Festival

A festival dedicated to short cinema

The Sezze Film Festival is a cinema and entertainment event dedicated to Italian and international short films. Each year, it transforms Sezze, a village in the Lepini Mountains in the province of Latina, into a small crossroads for independent cinema. The competition welcomes works of all genres—fiction, documentary, animation, experimental, and music videos—with a maximum duration of twenty minutes, selected from submissions arriving from all over Italy and abroad via international entry platforms. Alongside the main competition, the festival also presents special awards for feature films, web series, and music videos.

History: from 2019 to today

The first edition took place on May 4, 2019, at the San Michele Arcangelo Auditorium, strongly supported by artistic directors Stefano Madonna and Alfonso Chiarenza, both professionals active in film and television production. Edition after edition, the event has grown to become a staple of the local cultural calendar: the seventh edition, in September 2025, drew actors, directors, and producers from the Italian film scene to Sezze.

The competition and awards

The heart of the festival is the competition between the finalist short films, which are screened for the public before the closing night. The jury presents awards in the main categories of the cinematic craft:

• Best Short Film
• Best Director
• Best Screenplay
• Best Cinematography
• Best Soundtrack
• Best Actor and Best Actress
• Best Production

There are also lifetime achievement awards, presented to figures who have left their mark on Italian cinema and television: in 2025, these were awarded to Pino Calabrese, Claudio Fragasso, Daniela Poggi, and Mino Sferra.

A gala evening with the faces of Italian cinema

The awards ceremony is the most anticipated moment: a true provincial red carpet, featuring guests from the big and small screen, interviews, and meetings between professionals and fans of the seventh art. The festival serves as a space for dialogue between those who make cinema and those who love it, while simultaneously showcasing emerging short film talent.

The San Michele Arcangelo Auditorium

The historic venue for the event is the San Michele Arcangelo Auditorium, housed in an ancient religious complex in the historic center of Sezze: an evocative setting that adds charm to the screenings and the gala evening.

Sezze, between the Lepini Mountains and the Pontine Plain

The Municipality of Sezze stands on a spur of the Lepini Mountains overlooking the Pontine Plain, in the province of Latina, in southern Lazio. A village of ancient origins, linked to the myth of Hercules and known for its Living Passion and local artichokes, Sezze finds in the Film Festival a cultural showcase that enriches its summer and autumn events. For those visiting Lazio away from the beaten path, the festival is an opportunity to discover an authentic historic center less than an hour from Rome.