Yesterday, Wednesday 3 June 2025, the First International Film Festival of Pompeii, hosted for this first edition at the Cinema Nexus in the Maximall Pompeii, in Torre Annunziata (NA).
The opening was preceded by an elegant red carpet - which came to life around 17:30 pm - with the participation of numerous well-known faces from the Italian film scene. (here you can follow the live broadcast on Cronache della Campania)
“We hope that school children will participate in this Pompeii film festival and learn how cinema is made”
(Enrico Vanzina)
The artistic director of the festival took turns on the red carpet, Enrico Vanzina, and the president of the event, theAttorney Annarita Borrelli, accompanied by prominent figures such as Giovanni Esposito, Susie Del Giudice , Alessandro Cecchi Paone, Gino Rivieccio, Carlo Vanzina e Marco Risi, son of Dino Risi, as well as the mayor of Torre Annunziata, Corrado Cuccurullo, and the councilor Alfonso Ascione.
The actors and producers of the film also took part in the event. Stabat Mater, chosen by Vanzina himself as the inaugural film. At the opening, photo-calls and institutional greetings marked the first few minutes, between ritual shots and handshakes with the numerous guests who came for this historic day.
Once the session on the red carpet was over, the audience moved inside the Sala 7 of the Nexus Cinema, where Enrico Vanzina and Annarita Borrelli officially opened the festival.
In his speech, Vanzina underlined the main objective of the event: «This festival was born with the aim of combining popular cinema and auteur cinema, as already happened for the great Italian classics.the".
As a corollary to this statement, an excerpt from the famous film was shown An American in Rome, in which Alberto Sordi — playing the character Nando Moriconi — utters the historic line “«Ma tu mi provoche e mo te magno»”, a testament to the link between popular comedy and quality cinema.
Furthermore the director and Artistic Director of the Festival Enrico Vanzina , which presented the eight films in competition, said that the event aims to celebrate the culture and identity of different cultures around the world.
Among the most significant moments of the ceremony, the importance of hosting this festival not in the traditional setting of Naples, but in an area that has been neglected for too long like Torre Annunziata and Pompeii, was emphasized. "It is essential that culture comes back to life here," said Annarita Borrelli. "With this festival we want to offer the local community an international showcase, in the hope that more and more events of this type can liven up the territory."
The titles in competition were then presented, divided into short films and feature films, selected to offer a broad and varied overview of contemporary cinema. The highlight of the evening was, without a doubt, the screening of Stabat Mater, a "tough" feature film of great authorial value - as Vanzina himself specified - chosen to worthily inaugurate the event. The entire cast, from the technical workers to the main actors, was present in the room, welcoming the enthusiastic applause of the audience.
In closing, it is necessary to point out that, despite some small initial logistical uncertainties, the overall organization of the first day was judged pretty good by spectators and professionals.
With the hope that this new review can grow from year to year, the first evening of the Pompeii International Film Festival, leaving behind a strong legacy: culture and the big screen are returning to life in territories that deserve attention and support.
The festival will continue in the coming days with screenings, meetings with directors, masterclasses and special events, offering film buffs from all over the region a rich programme of events (READ THE PROGRAM). Tomorrow, June 4, 2025, the Festival will really get going: there will be the film by Gino Rivieccio, the only Italian “Da cosa nasce cosa”. Then in the next few days there will be films from Turkey, France, Kenya in co-production with Germany, Japan, Mexico.
Interview with Artistic Director Enrico Vanzina
Article published by Sebastiano Vangone on June 4, 2025, at 01:18 PM
Comments (1)
It was a truly beautiful event, and I am pleased that there was so much participation. But I hope that in the future they can also improve the facilities to better accommodate guests and the public.