Visionarie 2026

After the 2025 edition dedicated to the “Heretics,” Visionarie 2026 comes back with even greater force: Even More Heretical is this year’s title—an assertion of courage and an invitation to disobey, to rewrite, to transform. It is a hymn to all women who claim the right to imagination, to speech, to complexity: women who break patterns, create meaning, and generate possible worlds.

The program begins on the morning of Friday 30 January with institutional greetings, followed by a long, wide-ranging session devoted to a central topic: the audiovisual sector’s commitment to the path toward gender equality. It will be a direct, practical dialogue among institutions, associations, companies, and professionals in the field, to discuss critical issues, tools, strategies, and best practices.

The first panel—focused on the gender gap, equal pay, and gender certification—will include Chiara Gribaudo, promoter of the law on equal opportunities for working women, together with Giulia Minoli (Una Nessuna Centomila), Valeria Manieri (Le Contemporanee), and Monica Lucarelli, Rome Capital’s Councillor for productive activities and equal opportunities.

Next comes a roundtable with leading representatives from key audiovisual companies: Maria Pia Ammirati (Rai Fiction), Luisa Cotta Ramosino (Netflix), Nicole Morganti (Amazon Studios), Chiara Sbarigia (APA), Alessandro Usai (ANICA), Stefania Ippoliti (Toscana Film Commission), and producers Francesca Andreoli, Benedetta Caponi, Gloria Giorgianni, and Riccardo Tozzi. It will be a valuable opportunity to reflect on gender equality in production and decision-making processes, and on the challenges that remain.

A dedicated space will be given to associations and festivals, with contributions from Graziella Bildesheim (European Women’s Audiovisual Network), Emanuela Piovano (ANAC), Maria Iovine (Centautori), Francesca Massaro (WGI), Gaia Tridente (MIA), Camilla Toschi (Festival Internazionale Cinema e Donne di Firenze), Fabia Bettini (Alice nella Città), and Annamaria Granatello (Premio Solinas).

The morning concludes with an explanatory workshop reserved for audiovisual companies on “Gender Equality Certification,” incentives, and tax relief for virtuous companies, led by Enrico Gambardella (Winning Women Institute, the institute responsible for issuing gender certifications). The entire morning will be hosted by Giuliana Aliberti.

The afternoon heats up with one of the most anticipated and radical events of the program: “From Anaïs Nin to the Porn Girls,” a provocative and courageous panel exploring sexuality and desire through a female, free, and non-conventional gaze. From writing to directing, from intimacy coordination practices to ethical and feminist porn, the discussion moves through bodies, languages, and imaginaries. Speakers will include Barbara Alberti, Nadia Fusini, Giuliana Gamba, Serena Guarracino and Deborah Di Cave (KinkyGrrrls Collective), Lidia Ravviso, Mia Benedetta, Sarah Silvagni, Anna Negri, Regina Orioli, and Monica Stambrini. The session will be moderated by journalist and writer Antonella Matranga.

The second day, Saturday 31 January, opens with a highly intense meeting: Women’s cinema as resistance beyond silence—a poetic and political panel bringing together directors, producers, historians, and activists to speak about resistance, cinema, and literature. Speakers will include Benedetta Caponi, who will present a clip from the film The Voice of Hind Rajab, Graziella Bildesheim, Monica Maurer, Palestinian director Najwa Najjar, Paola Caridi, Wilma Labate, and Milena Fiore, among others. The panel will be moderated by journalist Gabriella Gallozzi. On this occasion, the Karama Prize will be awarded to director Ezzaldeen Shalh, founder of the Gaza International Festival for Women’s Cinema. The Ambassador of Palestine to Italy, Mona Abuamara, will be in attendance.

Closing the two-day event will be a new addition alongside the traditional Millennial Visionaria Prize: the Maestre Visionarie Prize, created to honor women who—through consistency, courage, and imagination—have changed, and continue to change, the face of Italian culture. The award will be presented to renowned director Liliana Cavani, with screenings of two of her early works produced by the National Film Archive (Cineteca Nazionale) – Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. The meeting will also be an occasion to celebrate Cavani as “Maestra Visionaria” together with many of the directors who have taken part in Visionarie over the years: Sonia Bergamasco, Carolina Cavalli, Eleonora Danco, Antonietta De Lillo, Anna Di Francisca, Irene Dionisio, Flaminia Graziadei, Emanuela Giordano, Maria Iovine, Wilma Labate, Laura Luchetti, Francesca Mazzoleni, Anna Negri, Costanza Quatriglio, Paola Randi, Marta Savina, Fabiana Sargentini, Adele Tulli, Margherita Vicario, and many others. Teachers and students from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and the Gian Maria Volonté School of Cinematic Art will also take part, in an ideal passing of the baton between generations.

Visionarie confirms itself as a free and necessary space: a community of thought and action that renews its commitment each year to give voice, body, and visibility to women who tell stories, who fight, who create—bringing together memory and the future, where the feminine is not a category but a transformative power.

The final program will soon be available on the website: https://www.donnevisionarie.com/

Info line: [email protected]

Press office: Elisabetta Castiglioni
+39 328 4112014 – [email protected]