MedFilm Festival 2026 in Rome, November 5 to 15, 2026

The 32nd edition of the MedFilm Festival 2026, the Mediterranean film festival, takes place in Rome from November 5 to 15, 2026, in theaters and online, with the MedMeetings, the festival's industry days, on November 9 and 10. The venues and program of the 2026 edition haven't been published yet: in 2025 the festival was held at The Space Cinema Moderno at Piazza della Repubblica 45 (metro A Repubblica), at Teatro Palladium at Piazza Bartolomeo Romano 8 in Garbatella (metro B Garbatella) and at Casa del Cinema in Villa Borghese. Times, prices and how to access screenings will be given on the official website medfilmfestival.org, which is also the reference for bookings.

Language: performed in Italian. No English version or English surtitles are announced.

MedFilm Festival 2026 at a glance

MedFilm Festival is Rome's longest-running film festival and the only Italian event dedicated to Euro-Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cinema. Born in 1995, it's organized by Methexis Onlus, based at Via delle Alpi 30, and was founded and is directed by Ginella Vocca.

The dates

From November 5 to 15, 2026: 11 days of screenings in theaters and online, according to the official announcement of the opening of submissions. The MedMeetings, in their 10th edition, are held in Rome on November 9 and 10.

The format

Every year the festival presents a rich program of films, industry meetings, premieres, focuses and special events. The announcement of the 2026 edition promises an international experience that will explore the many aspects of the Mare Nostrum.

Film submissions

The call for films for the 2026 edition opened on May 4 and closed on July 31, 2026. The selection is therefore being finalized, and the program will be announced in the weeks before the opening.

Official contacts

Methexis Onlus, Via delle Alpi 30, 00198 Rome, email info@medfilmfestival.org, phone 06 85866170. The official website is medfilmfestival.org.

The MedFilm Festival program: the sections

The MedFilm Festival 2026 program hasn't been published yet. The festival's structure, confirmed in 2025, includes an Official Competition, an International Short Film Competition, the out-of-competition section Atlante and the historic sections Perle, Sguardi dal futuro, Voci dal carcere and Letture dal Mediterraneo.

The Official Competition

It's the heart of the festival: a selection of feature films from Mediterranean cinema. In 2025 it included eight titles, chosen to question, according to the magazine Close-up, the relationship between the personal and the political, between the intimate and the collective.

The International Short Film Competition

Open to works from European countries, the southern shore of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. In 2025 there were 18 shorts in competition. It's often the section where you discover the names of tomorrow's cinema.

Atlante

The out-of-competition section, conceived as a journey through some of the most interesting films of the season, between debut directors and masters. In 2025 the common thread of the three titles was family.

Perle

It's the section dedicated to Italian cinema, the best and often invisible. In 2025 it offered four deeply political films on the way of inhabiting spaces and living in community.

Sguardi dal futuro and Voci dal carcere

Sguardi dal futuro brings students from international film schools to the festival. Voci dal carcere gives space to works made by prisoners, with meetings inside prisons: it's one of the sections that have defined MedFilm for many years.

Letture dal Mediterraneo

The section dedicated to literature, with meetings and presentations that extend the festival beyond the screen.

MedMeetings, the festival's industry platform

The MedMeetings turn 10: the 10th edition is held in Rome on November 9 and 10, 2026, within the 32nd MedFilm Festival. The festival presents them as a leading professional platform for dialogue, cooperation and the development of the Euro-Mediterranean audiovisual industry.

The three sections

In 2025 the MedMeetings were divided into three sections: MedWips, for films in progress, MedPitching, for projects in development, and MedTalents, for new authors. It's the first Italian industry platform dedicated to the countries of the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

The OIM Award

Among the MedMeetings awards is the OIM Award, 10,000 euros for the best film in post-production. It's concrete help, the kind that lets a film reach theaters.

10 years of meetings

In 10 years, according to the festival, the platform has involved hundreds of directors, producers, distributors and professionals, fostering international collaborations, coproductions and growth paths for authors from Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

The MedFilm Festival awards

MedFilm gives a series of awards every year that go beyond the competition: from the Koinè Award, the festival's top prize, to the thematic awards on the environment, coproduction and first works.

The Koinè Award

In 2025 the Koinè Award went to Palestinian journalist and activist Aya Ashour, together with photographer Fatena Mohanna and journalist and videomaker Alhassan Selmi, for their work bearing witness from Gaza.

The Lifetime Achievement Award

In 2025 the Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Tony Gatlif, an Algerian Kabyle author and composer, who presented the Italian premiere of his «Ange» with Mathieu Amalric and Maria de Medeiros. In 2014 the same award had gone to French director Paul Vecchiali.

The thematic awards

In 2025 the festival gave the Best Euro-Mediterranean Coproduction Award, in collaboration with the European Commission, the MedFilm/WWF Award, dedicated to the environment, the Valentina Pedicini Award, for first and second works, and, for the Jubilee, an Ecumenical Award with the Institut Français Centre Saint-Louis.

The historic awards

In the early editions the official competition gave the Amore e Psiche Award to the best feature film, the documentary competition the Open Eyes Award, with a jury of foreign press journalists, and the short film competition the Methexis Award, given by film students and a group of prisoners, and the Cervantes Roma Award to the most innovative short.

The 2025 edition: what to expect

The 31st edition, from November 6 to 16, 2025, had «Hope» as its theme, hope as a vital push toward a future of peace, with 83 premiere titles from 33 countries and about 50 guests. It's the model closest to what will be seen in 2026.

The 2025 competition

The eight titles in competition were Maryam Touzani's «Calle Málaga», Cyril Aris's «A Sad and Beautiful World», Erige Sehiri's «Promis le ciel», Guillermo Galoe's «Ciudad sin sueño», Dania Reymond-Boughenou's «Les Tempêtes», Tarik Saleh's «Eagles of the Republic», Saeed Roustaee's «Woman and Child» and Kamal Aljafari's «With Hasan in Gaza».

The opening with Maryam Touzani

The 2025 festival opened on November 6 with «Calle Málaga», a love story in Tangier with Carmen Maura, by Moroccan director and actress Maryam Touzani, then Morocco's Oscar submission.

The tributes

In 2025 the festival dedicated a diptych to Palestine with Tewfik Saleh's «The Dupes» from 1972, in a restored print, and Elia Suleiman's «The Time That Remains» from 2009, and it remembered Paul Vecchiali with Antonio Pettinelli's documentary «Paul a Mayerling».

The collaborations

Among the 2025 partners were the Doha Film Institute, with the shorts of Made in Qatar Shortcuts, the Lebanese Cabriolet Film Festival, with five shorts, and the Pianeta Mare Film Festival, with the Palestinian short «I'm Glad You're Dead Now» by Tawfeek Barhom, Palme d'Or at Cannes.

The history of MedFilm Festival

MedFilm Festival was born in 1995, the year of the centenary of cinema and of the Barcelona Declaration on the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. It was founded by Ginella Vocca and Sergio Mario Illuminato. It's recognized as a festival of national interest by the Ministry and as a historic event by the City of Rome.

A precise mission

The festival aims to promote intercultural dialogue and commercial cooperation between Europe and the countries of the southern shore of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, through quality cinema, to recognize diversity as a value and culture as an engine of the economy.

The showcases of the early 2000s

In 2010 the festival had Lebanon and Spain as guests of honor, with two showcases on the previous 10 years of their cinema, and offered the Nuova Europa showcase, dedicated to European cinema and Eurimages coproductions, and Le Regard des Autres, with the French Embassy, on the many perspectives of French society.

Beyond the festival

MedFilm works all year round: MedFilm Marocco, cinema in schools, Walk with Women, L'estate in biblioteca, I corti di Torno subito, Cinemaggio, the Italian Film Days in Tunis. In April 2026 it debuted in New York, with three days of Mediterranean cinema at the Italian Cultural Institute on Park Avenue, from April 16 to 18.

MedFilm Festival venues in Rome

The 2026 venues haven't been announced yet. In 2025 the festival used The Space Cinema Moderno in Piazza della Repubblica, Teatro Palladium in Garbatella and Casa del Cinema in Villa Borghese, with events also at the Archivio Flamigni and Sapienza University and stops in the province at Zagarolo, Riano, Sacrofano and Bracciano.

The Space Cinema Moderno

The movie theater is at Piazza della Repubblica 45, in the Castro Pretorio district, a few steps from Termini station. Facing the square are the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli and the remains of the Baths of Diocletian: Piazza della Repubblica is one of the most central and best-served spots in the city.

Teatro Palladium

The Palladium is at Piazza Bartolomeo Romano 8, in Garbatella. Born as the Cinema Teatro Garbatella, today it's the theater of Roma Tre University. For a film festival it's a return to origins: a neighborhood movie theater turned university space.

Casa del Cinema

Casa del Cinema is housed in the Casina delle Rose, inside Villa Borghese, near Porta Pinciana. Opened in 2004, it has three rooms for screenings and conferences, an open-air theater and exhibition spaces. Our page on Casa del Cinema in Villa Borghese describes its program.

Other places

In recent editions the festival has also brought screenings and meetings to universities, prisons and MAXXI. It's a spread-out geography that changes every year: the 2026 program will say which places are involved.

The Garbatella of the Palladium

Garbatella, where Teatro Palladium is, is a neighborhood born on February 18, 1920, when Victor Emmanuel III laid the first stone in Piazza Benedetto Brin: a garden city for workers, built by the Istituto Case popolari with the Ente autonomo per lo sviluppo marittimo e industriale di Roma.

The port that isn't there

The neighborhood was meant to serve a river port and a canal toward Ostia, designed by Paolo Orlando and never built. What remains is the maritime naming of the streets, dedicated to navigators and explorers.

The barocchetto

The first lots, with courtyards, vegetable gardens and washhouses, were designed in the style Romans call barocchetto, with architects such as Gustavo Giovannoni and Innocenzo Sabbatini, followed by Massimo Piacentini, Mario De Renzi and Felice Nori. From 1927 the large Alberghi appeared near Piazza Eugenio Biffi.

Cinema in Garbatella

Garbatella is a film neighborhood: Nanni Moretti passes through it in «Caro diario» and «Bianca», the Cesaroni of TV live there, Pasolini describes it in «Una vita violenta». A film festival at the Palladium therefore speaks the local language.

How to get to the MedFilm Festival venues

MedFilm Festival's usual venues are all served by the metro: The Space Cinema Moderno by metro A, Repubblica stop, Teatro Palladium by metro B, Garbatella stop, and Casa del Cinema by metro A, Spagna and Flaminio stops, and by trams 2, 3 and 19.

To the Moderno

The Repubblica stop on metro A is on the square. From Termini, terminus of many bus lines and the crossing point of the two metro lines, you get there in a few minutes on foot.

To the Palladium

From Termini take metro B toward Laurentina and get off at Garbatella. From the station you walk up toward the historic neighborhood. Via Ostiense, at the foot of Garbatella, is served by lines 23 and 769.

To Casa del Cinema

The Spagna station on metro A has an exit that goes up toward Villa Borghese and Porta Pinciana, the quickest route to Casa del Cinema. Trams 3 and 19 run along the north side of the park, and from Via Veneto, past Porta Pinciana, Casa del Cinema is a few steps away.

By car

At none of the three venues is a car a good idea: the center around Piazza della Repubblica has restricted access, historic Garbatella has narrow streets and little parking, and the parking lots around Villa Borghese fill up early.

How to organize your MedFilm Festival days

An 11-day festival with several venues is followed with a bit of strategy: choose the films, group them by venue, leave time for the meetings with directors and guests.

Choosing the films

When the program is published, it's best to start from the Official Competition and the premieres with directors in attendance. The screenings accompanied by the authors, with the final discussion, are the festival's real value.

A typical day

A screening in the afternoon, dinner in the neighborhood, an evening film: if the two screenings are at the same venue, the day organizes itself. If they change venue, metro A and B allow you to move in half an hour.

Online

The festival also takes place online. For those who don't live in Rome or can't get around it's a real alternative. Access details are given on the official website.

With teenagers

MedFilm has a long track record with schools, with the cinema in schools project and with Sguardi dal futuro, dedicated to film students. For a teenager studying languages or history, a Mediterranean film with the director in the room is a lesson they won't forget.

Where to eat during the festival

Each MedFilm venue has a different neighborhood around it: the Moderno is between Termini and Monti, the Palladium is in Garbatella, Casa del Cinema is inside Villa Borghese.

Around Piazza della Repubblica

The Termini area offers bars, pizza-by-the-slice shops and restaurants of every kind, open late: convenient for a quick dinner between two screenings.

In Garbatella

Garbatella has neighborhood trattorias and pizzerias, frequented mostly by locals. A dinner before the evening film, on a weekday, can almost always be had without booking.

In Villa Borghese

Casa del Cinema has a café and a restaurant. Outside the park, Via Veneto and Porta Pinciana area offers bars and restaurants a few minutes' walk away.

A curious fact about MedFilm Festival 2026 in Rome, November 5 to 15, 2026

The most beautiful curious fact concerns its birth date. MedFilm was born in 1995, the year of two different anniversaries: the centenary of cinema and the Barcelona Declaration, the document that binds cooperation among the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean area. The festival brings the two together: cinema as a tool for dialogue between the shores of the same sea.

32 editions later, that idea has become a network: the Rome festival, the MedMeetings for the industry, a stop in Morocco, the Italian Film Days in Tunis and, since April 2026, a spin-off in New York, at the Italian Cultural Institute on Park Avenue.

The second curious fact concerns the theme. Each edition has one: in 2025 it was «Hope», hope as a vital and active push toward a future of peace. For 2026 the official announcement speaks of an edition that will explore the many aspects of the Mare Nostrum. It's a festival that doesn't just line up films, but builds a discourse every year, and the audience that has followed it for years also goes to find out what it will be.

Something nobody tells you about MedFilm Festival 2026 in Rome, November 5 to 15, 2026

MedFilm is Rome's oldest film festival, yet many Romans don't know it. In the same autumn weeks the city lives through the Rome Film Fest and Alice nella Città, with big names and red carpets. MedFilm arrives right after, in early November, and with more modest media attention. It's an advantage for the viewer: less crowded theaters, directors open to dialogue, films that often will never reach Italian distribution.

The second thing nobody says is that the festival is an observatory. Many films in the competition are their countries' Oscar submissions: in 2025 «Calle Málaga» was Morocco's and «A Sad and Beautiful World» Lebanon's. Those who follow MedFilm see in advance what Mediterranean cinema offers the world.

A third thing: the festival isn't only in downtown theaters. Over the years it has brought screenings and meetings to prisons, with the Voci dal carcere section, to universities, to the province. In 2025 the stops were Zagarolo, Riano, Sacrofano and Bracciano. The 2026 program will say where it goes this year.

My advice for MedFilm Festival 2026 in Rome, November 5 to 15, 2026

My advice is to choose the screenings with the director in attendance. MedFilm's value isn't only in the films, but in the discussion that follows: hearing a Lebanese, Tunisian or Palestinian author tell how they shot their film, with what means and what risks, is an experience streaming doesn't give back.

Second piece of advice: follow the official website in the days before the opening. The program, venues and access details are published close to the opening, and some screenings may require booking.

Third: devote at least one evening to the Official Competition and one to the shorts. The competition is the showcase of the season's best. The shorts are where you discover the directors you'll see in five years at the big festivals.

Finally, use the metro. The festival's usual venues are all a few minutes from metro A and B stations: in a city where November evening traffic is heavy, it's the only way to see two films at two different venues on the same night.

Another well-known fact, yet not often mentioned

Film lovers know that festivals award directors. Less often mentioned is that MedFilm has built over the years an unusual system of awards: among the historic awards of the short film competition was the Methexis Award, given by a jury made up of students from national film schools and a group of prisoners from an Italian prison. It's hard to find a jury like that elsewhere.

The second little-mentioned fact concerns the industry. The MedMeetings are the first Italian industry platform dedicated to the countries of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and they offer the OIM Award, 10,000 euros for the best film in post-production. Behind a festival for the public, there's year-round coproduction and support work that gets films made.

And a third: the Koinè Award, the festival's top prize, doesn't always go to a filmmaker. In 2025 it went to a journalist, a photographer and a videomaker from Gaza. The festival uses it to point to those who, by any means, defend the right to tell the story.

The right photo to take at MedFilm Festival 2026 in Rome, November 5 to 15, 2026

The right photo of a film festival isn't of the screen, but of the hall during the discussion: the director standing in front of the dark screen, the audience raising hands, the house lights half on. It's the moment that tells what MedFilm really is.

Outside the theaters, each venue has its shot. At the Moderno, Piazza della Repubblica in the evening, with the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli and the remains of the Baths of Diocletian. In Garbatella, the facade of the Palladium on the square, with the neighborhood's lots around it. At Casa del Cinema, the Casina delle Rose among the trees of Villa Borghese, at a November sunset.

During screenings, of course, no photos: respect the film and those watching it. Photos with guests are taken after the discussion, in the foyer, where MedFilm directors are usually happy to exchange a few words with the audience.

Some important events that happened here in history

MedFilm's history begins in 1995, the year of the centenary of cinema and the Barcelona Declaration. Since then the festival has been held every year in Rome in November, and it's recognized as a festival of national interest and a historic event of the City of Rome.

In 2010 the festival dedicated its special showcases to Lebanon and Spain, and offered the sixth edition of Nuova Europa and Le Regard des Autres. In 2014 the Lifetime Achievement Award went to Paul Vecchiali. In 2017 the MedMeetings were born, which in 2026 reach their 10th edition. In 2025 the 31st edition, on the theme of hope, had a first stop in Rabat, Morocco, and brought cinema to the province. The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Tony Gatlif, the Koinè Award to Aya Ashour. In April 2026 the festival debuted in New York.

The venues have their own history too. Casa del Cinema, in the Casina delle Rose restored by the City, opened on September 18, 2004. Teatro Palladium was born as the Cinema Teatro Garbatella, in a neighborhood founded on February 18, 1920. Piazza della Repubblica, where the Moderno is, is the square facing the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli and the Baths of Diocletian.

Who has passed through MedFilm Festival 2026 in Rome, November 5 to 15, 2026

In 30 years many of the most important names of Mediterranean cinema have passed through MedFilm Festival. In 2025 alone: Maryam Touzani, Moroccan director and actress, who opened the festival with «Calle Málaga», Tony Gatlif, Lifetime Achievement Award, with «Ange», Kamal Aljafari with «With Hasan in Gaza», Libyan director Jihan K with «My Father and Gheddafi», and Tunisian Erige Sehiri, a past guest of the festival, with «Promis le ciel».

In the 2025 competition there were also Tarik Saleh with «Eagles of the Republic», Saeed Roustaee with «Woman and Child», Cyril Aris with «A Sad and Beautiful World». In the Atlante section the Iranian Ali Asgari with «Divine Comedy». In the retrospectives, Tewfik Saleh and Elia Suleiman. Among the award winners of past years, French director Paul Vecchiali.

MedFilm is also the place where directors pass through before becoming known: the short film competitions and the students of Sguardi dal futuro are the festival's nursery. Those who go to MedFilm 2026 see tomorrow's names before everyone else.

November in Rome, MedFilm season

In Rome, November is the month of cinema in theaters. After the Rome Film Fest in October, MedFilm opens the season of more specialized festivals and autumn series.

The weather

In early November the days are still mild, the evenings cool and often rainy. To move from one venue to another an umbrella in your bag is a good idea.

Other opportunities

In the same autumn Rome hosts the Rome Film Fest and Alice nella Città, and the Roma Jazz Festival begins at the Auditorium. For those who love Mediterranean cultures, MedFilm remains the most specific event.

Frequently asked questions about MedFilm Festival 2026

When is MedFilm Festival 2026?

MedFilm Festival 2026, the 32nd edition, takes place in Rome from November 5 to 15, 2026, in theaters and online. The MedMeetings, the festival's industry platform, are held on November 9 and 10, 2026.

Where is MedFilm Festival held in Rome?

The MedFilm Festival 2026 venues haven't been announced yet. In 2025 the festival was held at The Space Cinema Moderno in Piazza della Repubblica, at Teatro Palladium in Garbatella and at Casa del Cinema in Villa Borghese, with events also at universities and in the province.

How much do MedFilm Festival screenings cost?

Prices and access details for MedFilm Festival 2026 screenings haven't been published yet. They'll be given on the official website medfilmfestival.org together with the program, in the weeks before the November 5 opening.

What films are shown at MedFilm Festival?

MedFilm Festival presents films from Mediterranean, European and Middle Eastern cinema, mostly premieres: an Official Competition, a short film competition, the Atlante section, the Perle section dedicated to Italian cinema and special sections with schools and prisons.

Who organizes MedFilm Festival?

MedFilm Festival is organized by Methexis Onlus, based at Via delle Alpi 30 in Rome. It was founded in 1995 by Ginella Vocca and Sergio Mario Illuminato and is directed by Ginella Vocca.

Can you follow MedFilm Festival online?

MedFilm Festival 2026 takes place in theaters and online, according to the edition's official announcement. Access details for streaming films will be given on medfilmfestival.org together with the program.

What are the MedMeetings?

The MedMeetings are MedFilm Festival's industry platform, dedicated to the Euro-Mediterranean audiovisual industry. The 10th edition is held in Rome on November 9 and 10, 2026, with meetings between directors, producers and distributors and the OIM Award for the best film in post-production.

In closing

A city is better understood by looking at the sea it came from. MedFilm does exactly that: it brings to Rome the stories of the other shores, with their authors in the room. It's worth marking November 5 and 15 in your calendar, keeping an eye on the official website for the program and choosing at least three competition films with the director present. They're three evenings worth a whole season.

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