“Presenting our land not just as a backdrop but as a living space, criss-crossed by visions, memories and identities”. This year, as before, in the words of its artistic director Michelangelo Messina, the Ischia Film Festival is looking to be a meeting place for “films, directors and approaches capable of exploring the profound connection between different places and the people who pass through them”. With this in mind, the Neapolitan island is gearing up to welcome - between 27 June and 4 July - 66 works hailing from 33 countries from around the world to celebrate the festival’s 24th edition, amidst renowned directors and new filmmaking revelations, masterclasses and tributes.

The official competition will be composed of 32 works – 27 of which presented in premieres - sub-divided into feature films, short films and the Location Denied section, dedicated to human rights and wounded places. Eight titles grace the international competition: Aisha Can't Fly Away by Morad Mostafa, Summer Is Crazy by Ulla Heikkilä, Kickoff by Roser Corella and Stefano Obino; Soul of the Seasons, which is the new documentary by Alessandro Cattaneo (Res creata); Waking Hours by Federico Cammarata and Filippo Foscarini, which was selected for Venice’s Critics’ Week in 2025; We Are the Fruits of the Forest by Rithy Panh, and Wirbel by Tomáš Hubácek, with Anton Mamyikin’s Russian title Sanding Dreams rounding off the line-up.

Stealing focus in the Location Denied section are Dom by Massimiliano Battistella (screened in the 2025 Giornate degli Autori line-up), Nel buio dell’acqua by David Rodríguez de la Morena, focusing on an 83-year-old man who lives away from the world in close contact with nature and who’s suddenly forced to abandon his lifestyle; Parallel City by Ana Margineanu, which explores rootlessness, mental health and moral responsibility in modern-day Europe, and New Beginnings by Isabelle Ingold and Vivianne Perelmuter, revolving around a Vietnam veteran who lives on a reserve in northern California where environmental destruction reawakens his war-related trauma.

Works standing tall out of competition are Ballata femmenella by Giovanni Battista Origo and Elettra Raffaela Melucci, taking us on a journey through the biggest and oldest transgender community in Europe, based in Naples; A Garden for the Sea by Fabio Palmieri, in which an unconventional approach to land farming sees the ocean transformed into a laboratory to oppose the future climate crisis; Listen! by Olga Arlauskas and Svetlana Gorlo, which is set in four different regions and which looks back on the birth of contemporary world music; Napoli Felix by Alessia Maturi and Maria Reitano, centring on the Scampia Carnival, which was founded 44 years ago on the outskirts of Naples as a shared moment of public protest expressed through comedy and allegory.

Last but not least, the Best Of section will shine fresh light on a handful of recently acclaimed Italian titles, namely The Tasters by Silvio Soldini (who will also receive the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award), Antartica - Quasi una fiaba by Lucia Calamaro, Il dio dell'amore by Francesco Lagi and Era by Vincenzo Marra.