2026 Festival Guide • Nuovo Cinema Italiano Film Festival

Nuovo Cinema Italiano Film Festival is proud to announce the 20th edition of its annual celebration of contemporary Italian cinema and culture. The 2026 festival will take place November 4–8 at the Queen Street Playhouse, 20 Queen St., in downtown Charleston.

Over five days, the festival will present 13 feature films and documentaries, along with a special fashion show and a special event dedicated to the Neapolitan episode of Roberto Rossellini’s neorealist classic Paisan.

This year’s festival poster pays homage to Luchino Visconti’s masterpiece The Leopard, starring Claudia Cardinale.

Featured Films

The Schedule

Featured Films

The following are our featured films for 2024. All films are in Italian with English subtitles.

Brunello, il visionario garbato
Brunello: The Gracious Visionary
La salita
The Climb
Il quieto vivere
I Want Her Dead
Duse
Paisan (2nd episode: Naples) + Musical Presentation
Elvira Notari. Oltre il silenzio
Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence
La vita va così
Life is Life
Gioa mia
Sweetheart
…che Dio perdona a tutti
God Forgives Everyone
Le città di pianura
The Last One for the Road
Primavera
Elena del ghetto
Elena's War
La farfalla impazzita
Crazed Butterfly
Breve storia d’amore
A Brief Affair

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The Schedule

Featured Guests

Our featured guests for the 2024 Film Festival.

Stefano Casertano
Director
Valerio Ciriaci
Director
Dr. Luvada A. Harrison
Special Guest
Alfredo Cossu
Actor
Stephen Washington and Zandrina Dunning
Special Musical Guests
Rino Pinto
Producer
Domenico De Sole
Special Guest
Gianluca Matarrese
Director

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The Schedule

Our Jurors

The Jurors for the 2023 Film Festival.

Bill Thompson
Ermanno Di Febo Orsini
Rodney Rogers
Fred White
Glenn German
Earl Bridges
Virginia Friedman

Festival Venue

For this year’s festival, the Queen Street Playhouse will be the venue for all events on the festival schedule.

“I am very happy that this year we will be able to bring the festival back to its pre-Covid status. The 13 movies to be screened at the festival this year are wide ranging, and include comedies, dramas and documentaries. We will have guest artists from Italy, live performances, and students assisting with the programs and interacting with the filmmakers. I’m thrilled we can share with Charleston audiences these critically acclaimed and award-winning movies, all recent releases, including “Nostalgia” by Mario Martone, which will represent Italy at the 2023 Academy Awards as an entry in the International Feature Film Award category.”