The Ischia Film Festival (IFF) is an annual international film festival held in the

Aragonese Castle Aragonese Castle () is a castle built on a small tidal island east of Ischia (one of the Phlegraean Islands), at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, Italy. The castle stands on a volcanic rocky islet that connects to the larger island of Is ...

on the island of

Ischia Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from the city of Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Although inhabited since the Bronze Age, as a Ancient G ...

, Italy in late June to early July. Founded in 2003 and still directed by Michelangelo Messina, the festival focuses on film locations. Feature films in competition are eligible for four awards, and there are separate awards for

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

s and other categories.

History

The first edition of the festival was held in 2003 under the direction of Michelangelo Messina, when it was called the Foreigner Film Festival. By the second edition it had changed its name to Foreign Film Festival (subtitled European Location Film Festival), and by the third edition in 2005 it had changed its name to Ischia Film Festival. The 21st edition ran from 25 June to 1 July 2023. The 23rd edition was held from 28 June to 5 July 2025.

Description

The festival is dedicated to film locations, hosting films which have a particular emphasis on their locations. It runs an international competition for

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

s, and

documentaries A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill ...

. It is organised by the Art Movie & Music Association, and held each year from late June into early July in the Castello Aragonese.

Awards and honour committee

Each year, the IFF presents a Lifetime Achievement Award to international filmmakers and actors, after which the winners become part of a permanent honour committee of the festival. The committee includes

Margarethe von Trotta Margarethe von Trotta (; born 21 February 1942)Hans Helmut Prinzler, ''Chronik des deutschen Films, 1895–1994'' (Stuttgart and Weimar: Verlag J. B. Metzler, 1995), p. 149. is a German film director, screenwriter, and actress. She has been ref ...

Peter Greenaway Peter Greenaway, (born 5 April 1942) is a British film director, screenwriter and artist. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Mannerist painting in particular. Common traits in his films a ...

John Turturro John Michael Turturro ( ; born February 28, 1957) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his varied roles in independent films, and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers and Spike Lee. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award a ...

Krzysztof Zanussi Krzysztof Pius Zanussi (born 17 June 1939) is a Polish film and theatre director, producer and screenwriter. He is a professor of European film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland where he conducts a summer workshop. He ...

Vittorio Storaro Vittorio Storaro, A.S.C., A.I.C. (born 24 June 1940), is an Italian cinematographer widely recognized as one of the best and most influential in cinema history, for his work on numerous classic films including '' The Conformist'' (1970), ''Apoc ...

, and Tony Servillo. Feature films are eligible for the following awards: * Ischia Film Award, for best international film * Castello Aragonese Award, for best director * Epomeo Award, for best

cinematography Cinematography () is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens (optics), lens to focus reflected light from objects into a real image that is transferred to some image sen ...

* Aenaria Award, for the film that has best incorporated the location in its narrative Awards are given in the following categories for best film in each, along with special mentions for each: * International Short Films * Location Denied *

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

n Scenarios

Organisers

, the organisers of the festival include: *Artistic director: Michelangelo Messina *Artistic consultant:

Gianni Canova Gian Battista "Gianni" Canova (born 16 February 1954) is an Italian film critic, essayist, television writer and academic. Life and career Born in Castione della Presolana, Canova graduated in letters from the University of Milan. In 1993 he ...

*Coordinator: Enny Mazzella *Guest coordinator: Sara Messina

References

External links

* Film festivals in Italy {{Europe-film-festival-stub