Blog: Film festivals

Lucca Film Festival is an annual event that celebrates and promotes cinematographic culture. Through screenings, exhibitions, conferences and performances, the Festival has been able to captivate an ever-increasing audience with a program that ranges from experimental to mainstream films. Through the years, Lucca Film Festival has carved out a niche for itself, standing apart from the many other festivals thanks to its bold yet carefully studied programming. Over the years, great names of international filmmakers and well-known celebrities have attended Lucca Film Festival as invited guests; David Lynch, Oliver Stone, Jeremy Irons, Willem Dafoe, George Romero, Terry Gilliam, William Friedkin, Alfonso Cuarón, John Boorman, Rutger Hauer, Joe Dante and Peter Greenaway, just to name a few. At the same time, the Festival has offered retrospectives of “old” glories while unearthing new talents. To top it all off, breathtaking Lucca serve as a stunning backdrop to an event that has now firmly established itself, becoming a highly anticipated and not-to-be-missed appointment in Italy and in Europe: the Lucca Film Festival.

Since its creation, the festival has always been committed to promoting contemporary films.
Therefore, directors from all over the world can submit their films to the competitive section of the festival through the dedicated call for entries. The 2022 edition of Lucca Film Festival will be held from 23 Semptember to 1 October, both in cinemas and online.

The 2023 will be the 8th edition of the Lucca Film Festival International Feature Film Competition. In the previous editions important personalities of cinema like Cristi Puiu, Rutger Hauer, Philip Groening and Claudio Giovannesi had been part of the international jury.

The films shown during this competition are Italian premieres and last edition was won by "Yamabuki" di Juichiro Yamasaki.

There are three awards: Best feature film prize (3000€), awarded by a jury of renowned guests from both the cinematographic and academic worlds; and Best feature film – university jury prize (awarded by an university jury), Best feature film - Popular jury and the Marcello Petrozziello Award.

For those who are interested in this competition, the last day for submissions is July 14 2023, until midnight.

There are no limitations to the genre or topic of the films. The only requirements are the following: the films must be at least 60 minutes long and must have been produced in 2022. Moreover, they must be Italian premieres, so they cannot have been presented in any other Italian festival, shown on any online open platform or distributed in any other way in Italy.

For the 18th year in a row, it will take place the historic short films competition, whose winner will receive a 500€ prize. Every year, the selection committee of this competition receives more than 300 films to evaluate. Among the directors who took part in earlier editions, there are celebrities like Adan Jodorowsky, son of the famous Chilean filmmaker.
Even though the “free experimentation” is the fil rouge of this year's edition, the films have no limitations in genre and topic. The only requirement is that they cannot last more than 29 minutes. For the short films competition, the last day for submissions is July 28, 2023, until midnight.

Lucca Film Festival launches, for the 2023 edition, a new short film competition, "Lucca Film Festival for Future", which was born thanks to the collaboration with the Sofidel Group, 2nd producer in Europe and 7th in the world for production capacity in the sector of paper for hygienic and domestic use (known in particular for the Regina brand), which has made sustainability a strategic lever of development and responsible growth to reduce its impact on natural capital and favour the transition towards a low carbon impact economy. The prize is 1000€.

List of the selected films will be published on the festival’s website within September 15, 2023. During the festival the movies will be shown in the cinemas taking part in the event and on demand online.

The Lucca Film Festival, coordinated by Nicola Borrelli, is one of the key events organized and sponsored by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca.

The event's main sponsors are Banca Generali and Banca Pictet, whereas the exhibits are produced with the support of Banca Société Générale. The organization of the Lucca Film Festival has also been possible thanks to the funding from Funder35 and the support of Gesam Gas & Luce S.p.A Istituto Luce Cinecittà S.r.l., Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca, Baldini Vernici, Lucar S.p.A Lions Club Lucca Le Mura, Alleanza Assicurazioni S.p.A, Luccaorganizza, Il Ciocco S.p.A, MiBACT (the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism), the Region of Tuscany, the City of Lucca, the Province of Lucca with the collaboration and co-production of the Giglio Theatre in Lucca, Consociazione Nazionale donatori di sangue Fratres, Fondazione Giacomo Puccini e Museo Puccini – Casa Natale, Fondazione Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, Fondazione Mario Tobino, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Martinelli Luce, CG Entertainment, Fondazione Centro Arti Visive e Fondazione UIBI. Thanks also to Lucca Comics & Games, Trenitalia Regional Management, Unicoop Firenze and to the Degree Course in Performing Arts and Civilization Department of Communication and Forms of Knowledge at the University of Pisa, Photolux Festival and App18 for their collaboration.

Come to the Lucca Film Festival and experience a full 360° immersion in both the cinema and the heart of Tuscany.