The BIF&ST – Bari International Film&TV Festival, taking place in Bari from 21 to 28 March 2026, presents the official poster for its 17th edition, dedicated to Claudia Cardinale, the great actress who passed away last September and who was one of the most beloved figures in Italian and international cinema.
An acclaimed and multi-award-winning star, she worked with the great masters of Italian cinema, from Federico Fellini to Luchino Visconti, from Mario Monicelli to Pietro Germi, Mauro Bolognini and Sergio Leone, delivering unforgettable performances in cinematic masterpieces including I soliti ignoti (1958), Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960), Il bell’Antonio (1960), Il Gattopardo (1963), 8 ½ (1963), Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa (1965), and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
The poster for BIF&ST 2026 features Claudia Cardinale on the set of Valerio Zurlini’s La ragazza con la valigia (Giovanni Battista Poletto – 1961 – © Reporters Associati & Archivi – Rome), one of the films that established her reputation.
With this tribute, BIF&ST 2026 aims to celebrate Claudia Cardinale’s artistic greatness and her central role in the collective imagination. BIF&ST will also present a special screening of La ragazza con la valigia, an opportunity to revisit one of the most iconic titles of her filmography on the big screen.
“Claudia Cardinale, to whose memory we bow,” says Oscar Iarussi, artistic director of BIF&ST 2026, “is an icon of the splendour of Italian cinema in its golden age, but also an ‘indomitable’ symbol—as her daughter Claudia Squitieri describes her—of women’s courage and tenacity. Claudia Cardinale remains, without any rhetoric, an embodiment of the vibrant cultural, artistic and social exchanges between Europe and the Mediterranean, which inspire our work at BIF&ST, characterised by the ‘Meridiana’ section and the upcoming retrospectives dedicated to Giuseppe Tornatore and Abdellatif Kechiche. Born in the town of La Goletta, a peaceful multi-ethnic community near Tunis, to a family of Sicilian origin who had emigrated to North Africa, and arriving in Italy almost by chance at a very young age, she went on to achieve honours and fame through her work in cinema—not only Italian cinema, as seen in films such as The Pink Panther or Fitzcarraldo—settling in France from the 1980s onwards. Having previously been a guest at the BIF&ST in 2011 and 2016, Claudia Cardinale, thanks to her immense talent and understated charm, has inspired great directors and writers such as Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Alberto Moravia, who wrote of her: “When she laughs, her eyes become two black slits, sparkling with something mischievous, wild, intense, and southern.”
The BIF&ST 2026 is the festival of the Apulia Region, chaired by Antonio Decaro, produced by the Apulia Film Commission Foundation, chaired by Anna Maria Tosto and directed by Antonio Parente, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Bari, the University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, and numerous other public and private partners to be announced at a later date.
Press materials:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KSCvr09rAeKrUkqgncrYWbaevrL_NXOD?usp=drive_link