THE SIXTH EDITION OF THE VILLA MEDICI FILM FESTIVAL KICKS OFF
From 16 to 20 September, five days devoted to new forms of cinematic writing, with twelve films in competition, focus programmes, carte blanche selections, special screenings and open-air cinema. Opening on Wednesday 16 September with the Italian premiere of Les yeux verts by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, in the presence of the directors
Académie de France à Rome – Villa Medici
Viale della Trinità dei Monti 1 – Rome
The full programme, screening times and all information on reserving seats and purchasing individual tickets or passes for the entire festival are available on the Festival’s official website:
Five days of cinema, nearly forty events and an open gaze onto the most vibrant and surprising forms of contemporary creation. From 16 to 20 September 2026, the Villa Medici Film Festival returns for its sixth edition, with a programme bringing together films in competition, meetings with filmmakers, focus programmes, carte blanche selections, special screenings and major open-air cinema evenings on the Piazzale of the Académie de France à Rome.
The Festival will open on Wednesday 16 September at 8.30 pm, when the evocative Piazzale of Villa Medici will host the Italian premiere of Les yeux verts, the new film by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, who will be present for the screening. The event marks the beginning of five days during which Villa Medici once again becomes a meeting place for different cinematographies, languages, geographies and generations.
“Films are places that tell us stories coming from afar, translate dreams and hopes, reveal worlds, evoke a forgotten past. Cinema is the mirror of the world, of our world, which directors seek to decipher, dissect and reinvent,” underlines Sam Stourdzé, Director of the Académie de France à Rome – Villa Medici. “The sixth edition of the Villa Medici Film Festival is no exception: with twelve films in competition, focus programmes, carte blanche selections and special screenings, it turns its gaze towards new forms of cinematic writing, offering nearly forty events over five days, with filmmakers in attendance.”
TWELVE FILMS IN COMPETITION, TWELVE WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE WORLD
At the heart of the Festival is the international competition, comprising twelve films differing in length, origin and format, yet united by their ability to question the present through personal, poetic and experimental narrative forms.
The selection explores intimate, social and political issues: from collective memory to the traumas of History, from colonial legacies to migration, from violence to transformations within the family, and ultimately the difficult transition into adulthood. Children, women, artists and creators become protagonists in stories in which individual experience is continually intertwined with the great transformations of our time.
The selection was curated by a committee composed of Mathilde Henrot, Clément Postec, Nicolas Raffin and Valentine Umansky.
The twelve works will be judged by an international jury comprising artist and filmmaker Rosa Barba, Franco-Iranian actress, director and producer Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and director and screenwriter Radu Jude.
At the end of the Festival, the jury will award two prizes: the Villa Medici Award for Best Film and the Jury Prize, presented to an original work particularly appreciated by the jurors. The prizes include financial support and will offer the winning filmmakers the opportunity to return to Villa Medici for a residency.
FOCUS, CONTRECHAMP, CARTE BLANCHE AND SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Alongside the competition, the Festival broadens its horizons through the FOCUS, divided into the sections CONTRECHAMP, CARTE BLANCHE and special screenings.
CONTRECHAMP brings the work of Villa Medici fellows into dialogue with documentary and fiction films drawn both from the history of cinema and from contemporary creation, with programmes dedicated to Louidgi Beltrame, Maeve Brennan and Amandine Gay.
The CARTE BLANCHE selections are entrusted to the members of the jury, who are invited to share their vision of cinema with the public through freely chosen filmic and performative works.
AN EDITION DEDICATED TO LILI HINSTIN
The sixth edition is dedicated to the memory of Lili Hinstin, a figure deeply connected to the cinematic history of Villa Medici and to the very origins of the Festival.
A passionate cinephile and a free and courageous programmer, Hinstin moved across the world of cinema, from production to directing, from programming to artistic direction, defending a plural idea of the seventh art, attentive to emerging talents, to the presence of women in decision-making roles, and to perspectives emerging from different geographies and cultures.
From 2005 to 2009, she directed the cinema activities of the Académie de France à Rome, before returning in 2021 to accompany the birth of the Villa Medici Film Festival.
On Saturday 19 September, a special screening of Born in Flames will be dedicated to her, conceived as a tribute to a woman who made curiosity, freedom and cinematic research a vocation.
CINEMA UNDER THE STARS: THE OPENING WITH LES YEUX VERTS
Every evening, the Piazzale of Villa Medici, framed by the gardens and the façade of the historic seat of the Académie de France à Rome, will be transformed into a large open-air cinema, hosting a special screening for the public: works by international contemporary filmmakers and premieres to be discovered beneath the Roman sky.
The opening evening, Wednesday 16 September at 8.30 pm, will feature Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, who will be at Villa Medici to present the Italian premiere of Les yeux verts.
Académie de France à Rome — Villa Medici
Viale della Trinità dei Monti, 1 – Rome
Infoline: +39 06 67611
PRESS CONTACTS:
for France and abroad (excluding Italy):
Agence Dezarts: [email protected]
Agence Dezarts: [email protected]
Lorraine Tissier Rebour
+33 (0)6 75 83 56 94
Founded in 1666 by Louis XIV, the Académie de France à Rome – Villa Medici has been based at Villa Medici since 1803. Villa Medici is a sixteenth-century building surrounded by a seven-hectare park on the Pincian Hill, in the heart of Rome. The Académie de France à Rome – Villa Medici is a national public institution under the auspices of the French Ministry of Culture.
It currently pursues three complementary missions: welcoming leading artists, creators and art historians in residence for stays of one year or shorter periods; developing a cultural and artistic programme encompassing all fields of art and creativity and addressing a broad audience; and preserving, restoring, studying and making its architectural and landscape heritage, as well as its collections, known to the public.
The Académie de France à Rome – Villa Medici is directed by Sam Stourdzé.