The 24th edition of the Alice nella Città Festival, a showcase devoted to themes relevant to younger generations, will unspool in Rome from 13 to 25 October, in parallel with Rome Film Fest. An animated title will open this year’s edition: the eagerly awaited Wildwood – I segreti del bosco proibito, directed by Travis Knight.

There are 12 films in the International Competition, six of them debut features, set to be assessed by a jury of thirty-five youngsters aged between 16 and 19, who will hand out the Best Film Award. Artistic directors Fabia Bettini and Gianluca Giannelli have identified a common thread in the selection: the universal notion of coming of age, explored through psychological, social and philosophical lenses. 

Inheritance and breaking away from parents surface in Gabin, the first feature film by French director Maxence Voiseux, which was selected in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and which follows a boy from northern France over ten years, from childhood to adulthood, and in Butterfly Jam, also selected in the Fortnight, with which Russian helmer Kantemir Balagov is once again probing the relationship between identity and belonging, after Closeness and Beanopole. Audiences can expect to be surprised by Barry Keoghan’s charismatic presence in Butterfly Jam; the actor, who’s currently on set for Sam Mendes’ biopic, The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, will be in Rome to take part in a conversation with the audience.

Other people’s gaze and the power of friendship inform Big Girls Don’t Cry, Paloma Schneideman’s debut film set in rural New Zealand in 2006; Extra Geography by British filmmaker Molly Manners; and animated work We Are Aliens by Japan’s Kohei Kadowaki. An end of innocence is central to The Meltdown by Chilean actor-director Manuela Martelli and to the first feature-length fantasy drama Bad Beast by Catalan filmmaker Bàrbara Farré. Finally, the body, grief and memory are the focus of Louis Clichy’s animated film Iron Boy, which won the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize in Cannes; Everytime by Austrian director Sandra Wollner, which scooped Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Prize; and La Gradiva, Marine Atlan’s debut feature, which scooped the Grand Prize in Cannes Critics’ Week.

The only Italian title in competition is the documentary Selfie – Lato B, which Agostino Ferrente created by retrieving footage left on the cutting-room floor from shooting Selfie to craft a new story. Also in the International Competition is The Accompanist, the directorial debut of Zach Woods who’s known for the series Silicon Valley and The Office, and which marks the return of Susan Sarandon in a leading role. She’s set to receive the 2026 Womenlands Award.

Co-produced with Rome Film Fest, Se domani non torno by Paola Randi - which focuses on one of the most striking events in Italy’s recent history: the Giulia Cecchettin affair (read our news) - will be unveiled in a premiere. There are eight titles in the Panorama Italiano Competition, including seven debut features and three films directed by women. Opening the line-up is Idda, the sophomore feature by Irene Dionisio starring Tecla Insolia and Romana Maggiora Vergano. Among the other titles in competition are Föa – Once Upon a Future, which is the directorial debut of Margherita Ferrari produced by Paolo Sorrentino, among other names, and set against the 2001 Genoa G8; the debut comedy feature È un mondo difficile by Federico Mottica; Figli perduti by Lorenzo Maria Chierici; the coming-of-age film Le ragazzine stanno perdendo il controllo. La società le teme. La fine è azzurra by Pierluca Di Pasquale; and Senza chiedere permesso by Giacomo Mazzariol. Rounding off the selection are the documentaries Fabulaetiem by Vittorio Antonacci and Il Caffè by Giulio Pettenó.

The Panorama Italia – Out of Competition programme will serve up a raft of premieres, starting with Marco Bonini’s debut feature Se ami qualcuno dillo; the documentary Parla con me by Sophie Chiarello, who’s once again exploring the world of teenagers after Il Cerchio, which earned itself a Special Mention in Alice nella Città 2022; the documentary Carmelo – Dalla porta di Dozier alla porta del Notorious by Corrado Rizza; the comedy adapted from Matteo Losa’s novel Un altro giorno insieme by Alessandro Guida; and the section’s closing film, L’elisir d’amore, which is Andrea Brusa’s second feature film, providing a surreal and contemporary reinterpretation of Gaetano Donizetti’s opera buffa.