OPEN ROADS: NEW ITALIAN CINEMA, May 29- June 5, 2025
FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER AND CINECITTÀ
ANNOUNCE THE 24rd EDITION OF
OPEN ROADS: NEW ITALIAN CINEMA, MAY 29–JUNE 5, 2025
FESTIVAL THREAD
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The Sicilian Letters, The Time it Takes, Diamonds, The Battlefield, Where the Night Stands Still
14 features including the New York premiere of Opening Night film, Francesca Comencini’s The Time It Takes, with Fabrizio Gifuni in person
Scheduled to appear in person are Alessandro Cassigoli & Casey Kauffman, Gianluca De Serio & Massimiliano De Serio, Liryc Dela Cruz, Sara Fgaier, Alissa Jung, Silvia Luzi & Luca Bellino, Ferzan Özpetek, Antonio Piazza & Fabio Grassadonia, and Andrea Segr
New York, NY (May 1, 2025) – Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà announce the lineup for the 24th edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, running from May 29 to June 5.
Open Roads: New Italian Cinema is the premier showcase for the most compelling voices in contemporary Italian filmmaking. This year’s edition presents 14 new feature films, ranging from works by acclaimed directors returning to Open Roads, to notable debuts by four new filmmakers—underscoring the breadth and vitality of Italian cinema today. Many of the filmmakers will be present to discuss their films. The festival opens with the New York premiere of Francesca Comencini’s latest film, The Time It Takes, which is nominated for six David di Donatello awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor for its star, Fabrizio Gifuni, who will be present for a Q&A. The film is a deeply personal cinematic autobiography about Comencini’s relationship with her legendary filmmaker father, Luigi Comencini. Romana Maggiora Vergano, who plays Francesca, won the Pasinetti Award for Best Actress at its Venice Film Festival debut.
“The lineup for this year’s edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema represents an Italian cinema which has never been more international, more responsive to social and political developments both at home and abroad, more adventurous in terms of both style and substance,” said Dan Sullivan, FLC Programmer. “I’m particularly struck by the number of younger, even debuting, directors in the festival this year: the future of Italian cinema is bright, and it’s exciting to catch these new talents at an early stage of their artistic developments.”
“In a context of very rapid changes for both the market and the audience, the excellent news emerging from the mosaic of titles in Open Roads 2025 is that Italian cinema is showing productive maturity,” said Manuela Cacciamani, CEO of Cinecittà. “It knows how to adapt to different challenges, it hits the box office and embraces new languages, it engages in international co-productions without forgetting its own history and roots. As Thierry Frémaux recently reminded us in Cannes, and as Dan Sullivan confirms here at Film at Lincoln Center, our cinema is experiencing a moment of vitality and talent. Our cinema, as the title of this event suggests, has all roads open, and the 14 films in the lineup give us a sense of awareness that everyone in the industry needs to have.”
Open Roads welcomes back several acclaimed filmmakers with a slate of North American and New York premieres. Highlights include Francesco Costabile’s Familia, a tense family drama and exploration of political extremism, nominated for eight Donatello Awards; Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio’s documentary Canone effimero, a tribute to the local musical customs of Italy’s varied regions, which received a Special Mention from the Documentary Award jury at the 2024 Berlinale; the North American premiere of Gianni Amelio’s Battleground, a gripping WWII parable about courage and compassion; Ferzan Özpetek’s Diamonds, an homage to costume design set in a 1970s Roman fashion house; and the latest film from Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino, Luce, a portrait of a lonely leatherworker stifled by her surroundings.
Making their Open Roads debut are Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman with Vittoria, about a hairdresser navigating the world of adoption in search of a young girl who appears in her dreams, and Peter Kerekes with Wishing on a Star, a fiction/documentary hybrid that investigates the current state of human bonds through an astrologer and her efforts to help her clients find love.
Award-winning actor Elio Germano stars in two standout selections this year. He won Best Actor at the Rome Film Festival for his role as Enrico Berlinguer, former leader of the Italian Communist Party, in Andrea Segre’s The Great Ambition, which makes its North American premiere. Germano also appears alongside Toni Servillo in the New York premiere of Sicilian Letters by Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia, a bold take on the Italian crime film that earned multiple critics’ awards at Venice.
North American premieres of additional emerging voices from Italy making their first Open Roads appearances and feature film debuts are: Liryc Dela Cruz’s Where the Night Stands Still, centering on the reunion of three Filipino siblings and their lingering resentments after the eldest inherits a villa from her boss; Isabella Torre’s hypnotic Basileia, making its North American premiere following its Closing Film selection at the 2024 Venice Film Festival’s Venice Days sidebar, about the supernatural consequences of an illegal archaeological dig in southern Calabria; and Alissa Jung’s Paternal Leave, a sensitive story of a daughter reconnecting with her father, which made its world premiere at the Berlinale. Finally, the New York premiere of Sara Fgaier’s feature debut, Weightless, is about an amnesiac’s efforts to recover his memories of a forgotten love.
Open Roads: New Italian Cinema tickets will go on sale on Thursday, May 8 at noon, with an early access period for FLC Members starting Tuesday, May 6 at noon. Tickets are $17; $14 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $12 for FLC Members. See more and save with a 3+ Film Package ($15 for GP; $12 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $10 for FLC Members), and an All-Access Pass for $139 ($99 for Students), excluding the Opening Night film The Time It Takes.
Co-presented by Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà. Organized by Dan Sullivan of Film at Lincoln Center and by Carla Cattani, Griselda Guerrasio, Monique Catalino, and Rossella Rinaldi of Cinecittà, Rome.
Open Roads is supported in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in NY and with the support of Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò NYU, ITA Airways, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
OPEN ROADS 2025 : highlights
Open Roads 2025: best films.
I'd say it was a good year, ranging from the lighthearted and frivolous (CANONE EFFIMERO, WISING ON A STAR) to the serious and informative (a biopic, BERLINGUER/THE GREAT AMBITION, about Italian communist leader Enrico Berlinguer), but the quality seemed high throughout.
PATERNAL LEAVE (Alissa Jung 2025). The big Italian star Luca Marinelli is a surprise bravely playing an irresponsible dad confronted by his teenage daughter raised in Germany who's never seen him and doesn't speak a word of Italian. There are genuinely fresh and real moments here. Most of this is in some version of English. From the Berlinale.
CANONE EFFIMERO (Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio 2024). This eccentric documentary tour of Italy for local and folkloric music is not at all comprehsensive but has a quirky charm with its collection of polyvocal songs, music ethnology and oral tradition. Radically contemporary, energetic, close to nature, local. Lyrical. Won a special mention at the Berlinale.
WISHING ON A STAR (Peter Kerekes 2024). A local astrologer "cures" people's ills by doing arcane calculations on her clients and assigning them to go to some remote place to celebrate their birthdays and bring about the changes they dream of. This is a hybrid, tweaking footage of actual people and an actual astrologer, Luciana de Leoni D'Asparedo, of Udine in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. Premiered at Venice Orizzonti.
DIAMONDS/DIAMANTI (Ferzan Özpetek 2024). Sure it's glitzy and a bit catty and sometimes very broad, but this is a sincerre homage to women surrounding a famous costumer in Rome that has lots of stories to tell and is handsome to look at. A popular film in Italy, it won the audience award at the 2025 Donatello Awards.
THE TIME IT TAKES/IL TEMPO CHE CI VUOLE (Francesca Comencini 2024). There's deep Italian cinematic history here: this is an autobiographical film about herself as a tiny girl and her link with famous father Luigi Comencini, who made some of the signature movies of Italian "neorealismo rosa,"or pink neorealism, including famous films in the grand era of Italian postwar recovery and cultural triumph with great stars like Vittorio De Sica and Gina Lollabrigida. A poignant memory. From the Venice festival.
