09/01/2026 - The Central Eastern European gathering will unfold between 16 and 24 January, showcasing some of the most interesting names in contemporary cinema

The 37th edition of the Trieste Film Festival will unspool between 16 and 24 January with over 120 events on the agenda, spanning fiction feature films, documentaries, shorts, masterclasses and meetings with leading names, great masters and newcomers, director and actors, who have the power to build bridges between East and West. “We hope”, explained festival director Nicoletta Romeo, “that the visions in this year’s edition will serve as new compasses, helping us find our way through ever more complex human landscapes”.

As announced previously here, the festival will be opened by Agnieszka Holland’s Franz [+see also:
film review
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interview: Agnieszka Holland
film profile] and The Disappearance of Josef Mengele [+see also:
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interview: Kirill Serebrennikov
film profile] by Kirill Serebrennikov, who’ll be delivering a masterclass at the event, with the closing slot entrusted to Silent Friend [+see also:
film review
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interview: Ildikó Enyedi
film profile] courtesy of Ildikó Enyedi, who’ll also be coming face-to-face with the audience by way of a masterclass. There’ll also be an Italian premiere of Two Prosecutors [+see also:
film review
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interview: Sergei Loznitsa
film profile] by Sergei Loznitsa, which heralds the return of the Ukrainian director, following his participation in last year’s festival with his documentary The Invasion [+see also:
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interview: Sergei Loznitsa
film profile], which bagged the Eastern Star Prize. Special events out of competition include screenings of Laguna [+see also:
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interview: Šarūnas Bartas
film profile] by Šarūnas Bartas, Mirrors No. 3 [+see also:
film review
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interview: Christian Petzold
film profile] by Christian Petzold, Sound of Falling [+see also:
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interview: Mascha Schilinski
film profile] by Mascha Schilinski and Short Summer [+see also:
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interview: Nastia Korkia
film profile] by Nastia Korkia, which won the Future Lion in Venice.

Eight feature films have been selected in competition. From Warsaw, the festival will welcome Brother by Maciej Sobieszczański, which tells the story of a fourteen-year-old boy who’s torn between caring for his little brother and his mother. Elena’s Shift [+see also:
film review
interview: Stefanos Tsivopoulos
film profile] by Stefanos Tsivopoulos, meanwhile, which was presented in Tallinn, speaks of freedom, love and struggle, and revolves around a single Romanian mother in Athens who loses her job. Presented in Locarno and jostling among the titles in the Wild Roses section, Fantasy [+see also:
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interview: Kukla
film profile] by Slovenian director Kukla explores an encounter between three rebellious girls and a transgender woman. Likewise from Locano, Sorella di clausura [+see also:
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interview: Ivana Mladenović
film profile] by Serbian filmmaker Ivana Mladenović follows a woman obsessed by a musician from the Balkans whom she sees on TV. Travelling from Cannes, Mama by Or Sinai revolves around a woman who’s forced to leave her job abroad and come home to her family in a remote Polish village. In Renovation [+see also:
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interview: Gabrielė Urbonaitė
film profile], Gabrielė Urbonaitė’s debut, which was presented in Karlovy Vary, a twenty-something begins to wonder how she really wants to live her life. Vytautas Katkus’ debut which triumphed in Karlovy Vary, The Visitor [+see also:
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interview: Vytautas Katkus
interview: Vytautas Katkus
film profile], follows the life of a 30-year-old man who returns to his birth city. Last but not least, Broken Voices [+see also:
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interview: Ondřej Provazník
film profile] by Ondřej Provazník, which also claimed a trophy in Karlovy Vary, thrusts us back into the Czech Republic of the ‘90s, where a thirteen-year-old girl earns a place in a world-famous choir and attracts the attention of the enigmatic choirmaster.

The 10 documentaries battling it out in competition this year span countries beyond the borders of Europe. Militantropos [+see also:
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interview: Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gor…
film profile] by Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova and Simon Mozgovyi, which premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, captures the reality of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Presented in the IDFA, Outliving Shakespeare by Inna Sahakyan and Silent Flood [+see also:
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interview: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
film profile] by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk respectively explore the goings-on in a dilapidated Armenian retirement home dating back to the Soviet era and in a closed religious community in Ukraine, and The Kartli Kingdom [+see also:
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interview: Tamar Kalandadze, Julien Pe…
film profile] by Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebrel, which was victorious at the IDFA, takes a look at exile, trauma and resilience during the war in Abkhazia in the 1990s. Central to 9-Month Contract [+see also:
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film profile] by Ketevan Vashagashvili is the story of a Georgian mother who resorts to surrogacy; Active Vocabulary [+see also:
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film profile] by Russian director Yulia Lokshina shows how the school system is used by the Russian state; Electing Ms Santa by Raisa Răzmeriță is shot in a remote Moldovan village and follows one woman’s journey to escape conventions. In Welded Together [+see also:
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film profile] by Anastasija Mirošničenko, a woman who works as a welder sets out on a journey to find her family, and Grudzień by Grzegorz Paprzycki explores the life of refugees hidden in the forests along the Poland-Belarus border. Last but not least, We Live Here by Zhanana Kurmasheva takes us to the Kazalh steppe and a former Soviet site once used for nuclear testing.

The festival will also see the Corso Salani Prize presenting six independent Italian works which are yet to be distributed in national cinemas, starting with On Defiance by Giovanni C. Lorusso; In the Penal Colony [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Gaetano Crivaro, Silvia Perra, Ferruccio Goia and Alberto Diana; Leila [+see also:
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film profile] by Alessandro Abba Legnazzi, Clementina Abba Legnazzi and Giada Vincenzi, and Paul a Mayerling - Un Ritratto by Antonio Pettinelli. The section will be rounded off by Abele by Fabian Volti and White Lies by Alba Zari. Fuori dagli Sche(r)mi, dedicated to new film languages, will be offering up two titles: Wind, Talk to Me [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stefan Đorđević
film profile] by Serbian director Stefan Djordjević, which was presented in Rotterdam and triumphant in Sarajevo, and Stealing Land [+see also:
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film profile], a Slovenian dramedy directed by Žiga Virc.

(Translated from Italian)