Everything is ready for the 17th edition of BIF&ST – Bari International Film & TV Festival, scheduled to take place in Bari from 21 to 28 March 2026.
The festival will officially open with the premiere of Il Dio dell’amore, a new comedy about contemporary love directed by Francesco Lagi, the opening film presented in the Rosso di sera section (20:30, Teatro Petruzzelli). Joining the director on stage will be the cast members Anna Bellato, Enrico Borello, Francesco Colella, Benedetta Cimatti, Chiara Ferrara, Corrado Fortuna, Vinicio Marchioni, Isabella Ragonese and Vanessa Scalera. During the evening, the BIF&ST Arte del Cinema Award will be presented to Kasia Smutniak and the BIF&ST Bari Chamber of Commerce Award to Iginio Straffi. The opening night will be presented by artistic director Oscar Iarussi alongside Irene Maiorino, an acclaimed actress in film, television and theatre.
The official ceremony will be preceded by a pre-opening screening of Nelle tue mani by Peter Del Monte, followed by a discussion with Kasia Smutniak, one of the most beloved stars of Italian and European cinema (17:00, Teatro Petruzzelli). Among the special events on the programme is also Lumières possibles. usica, corpo, luce, a concert by Eva Danino and Mattia Vlad Morleo (18.30, Teatro Kursaal Santalucia), which enriches the festival’s opening with a performance that intertwines musical and visual dimensions. The first day of BIF&ST also marks the start of the retrospective dedicated to Giuseppe Tornatore, featuring two iconic films: Il camorrista (10.00) and Baarìa (20.30), screening at the Multicinema Galleria. The Notti Horror series also gets underway, with the national premiere of one of the season’s most eagerly awaited horror films, Obsession by Curry Barker (21:00, Multicinema Galleria). Rounding off the day’s programme is the short film competition Sarò breve (10.00, Multicinema Galleria), and three films from the Frontiere section: Palestine 36 by Annemarie Jacir, À bras-le-corps (Lo sguardo di Emma) by Marie-Elsa Sgualdo and On vous croit (We Believe You) by Charlotte Devillers and Arnaud Dufeys.
During the 17th edition, Bari is set to welcome many leading figures from Italian and international cinema and culture, honoured with the Bif&st “Arte del Cinema” Award, including Kasia Smutniak, Alessandro Baricco, Elena Sofia Ricci, Luisa Ranieri, Domenico Procacci, Francesca Archibugi, Valeria Golino, the record-breaking duo of Italian cinema Checco Zalone alongside director Gennaro Nunziante, British director, producer and actress Trudie Styler, and two Oscar winners: Wes Studi, an actor of Native American heritage and the only member of his community to have received a Lifetime Achievement Oscar, and Giuseppe Tornatore, to whom the festival is dedicating a retrospective.
The final day will feature Lino Banfi as a guest, star of Marco Spagnoli’s Lino d’Italia – Storia di un italiano, of which a 30-minute preview will be shown.
Among the highlights of Bif&st are also the major premieres of “Rosso di sera”, scheduled at the Teatro Petruzzelli, which will bring some of the most eagerly awaited titles in Italian and international cinema to Bari, alongside their leading actors. In addition to the opening with Il Dio dell’amore by Francesco Lagi, the return of Pupi Avati with Nel tepore del ballo, which will be in Bari with Massimo Ghini, Isabella Ferrari and Lina Sastri; Antartica, the debut feature by Lucia Calamaro starring Silvio Orlando, Barbara Ronchi and Valentina Bellè; and a special evening featuring the concert film Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, in collaboration with the Petruzzelli Foundation Orchestra and Choir. Among the major international premieres, Bradley Cooper’s new film, Is This Thing On (È l’ultima battuta?), starring Laura Dern and Will Arnett, courtesy of The Walt Disney Company Italia and Searchlight Pictures, as well as Partir un jour (Allora balliamo) by Amélie Bonnin, and Köln 75 by Ido Fluk, culminating in the closing night with the eagerly awaited new chapter of the Mektoub trilogy, namely Mektoub, My Love – Canto Due by Abdellatif Kechiche, to whom the festival is dedicating the second retrospective of this edition.
At the heart of the programme is the Meridiana Competition, which presents 12 films from the Euro-Mediterranean region, to be judged by a jury chaired by Roberto Andò. Among these: La petite dernière by actress-director Hafsia Herzi, starring Nadia Melliti, the rising star of French cinema who will be present in Bari; Sorda by debutant Eva Libertad, recently awarded three Goya prizes; and the documentary A War on Women by Raha Shirazi, which traces the history of the feminist movement in Iran from the 1960s to the present day.
Alongside the international section, there is the PER IL CINEMA ITALIANO competition, featuring 10 films in competition and 4 out of competition. Among the many guests expected in Bari to accompany their films are: Barbara Bouchet, the extraordinary lead in Finale:Allegro by Emanuela Piovano; Alessio Boni with Don Chisciotte by Fabio Segatori; Fotinì Peluso with Non è la fine del mondo by Valeria Zanella; Giorgio Pasotti and Valentina Cervi for Io non ti lascio solo by Fabrizio Cattani, and Giulio Beranek and Malich Cissé for Cattiva strada.
Special events also include the preview of the third episode of Guerrieri – La regola dell’equilibrio, the new series by Gianluca Maria Tavarelli starring Alessandro Gassmann, who will receive the “Bif&st Nuova Fiera del Levante Award”.
The programme also includes the “Pomeriggio al Petruzzelli” events featuring Illusione by Francesca Archibugi, the documentary Tutta vita by Valentina Cenni in the presence of the director alongside Stefano Bollani and Daniele Sepe, who will also star in a special musical performance, and the restored version of the film Il posto dell’anima by Riccardo Milani, presented by the director together with Paola Cortellesi, Silvio Orlando and Michele Placido.
Following the success of last year’s edition, the festival welcomes back the events of IL SEGRETO DELL’ATTRICE, a series curated by Piera Detassis, President and Artistic Director of the Accademia del Cinema Italiano – Premi David di Donatello, together with the festival’s Artistic Director Oscar Iarussi. Joining Piera Detassis in conversation will be three leading figures from Italian cinema and television: Maria Chiara Giannetta (24 March at 17:30), Anna Ferzetti (25 March at 17:00) and Tecla Insolia (26 March at 17:30). The events will take place at Il Circolo della Vela (free admission).
The programme also includes DOPPIO TESTO, a section curated by the writer Chiara Tagliaferri, who will lead discussions on the relationship between cinema and literature at the Kursaal Santalucia with Marco Pontecorvo and Andrea Vitali, presenting the Rai drama Una finestra vista lago (Tuesday 24 March at 09:30), Laura Samani and Giacomo Covi with Un anno di scuola (Wednesday 25 March at 09.30), Damiano Michieletto with his Primavera (Thursday 26 March at 09.30), and Roberto Andò himself with L’abbaglio (Friday 27 March at 09.30).