Among the timeless ruins of Pompeii, where every stone preserves the story of lost civilizations, the Pompeii International Film Festival comes to life. In its first edition, this event masterfully blends cinema, contemporary art and archaeological heritage.
Contents
- 1. Live Performance: The Living Sculpture Inspired by the Dancing Faun of Pompeii
- 2. Domenico Sepe's Sculptural Awards: Bronze, Lava and Artistic Rebirth
- 3. Special guests and award ceremony: from Neri Parenti to Luca Ward
- 1 Lifetime Achievement Awards
- 2 Guests, stars and personalities of the Festival
- 4. Monumental work by Domenico Sepe: art in dialogue with archaeology
- 1 Call to action for visitors
- 5. The last night of the festival: between myth, art and sensory suggestions
- 1 A multimedia and interactive experience
- 6. The numbers of success: cultural tourism and media resonance
- 7. Conclusions: Pompeii, crossroads of art, cinema and cultural identity
Led by Artistic Director Enrico Vanzina together with the tireless commitment of the president Annarita Borelli, the Festival has already attracted attention for its ability to enhance Pompeii as a stage of excellence: from screenings to workshops, from fashion shows to artistic performances. However, it will be the final evening of Sunday 8 June, hosted in the suggestive Great Theater of the Archaeological Park, marking the real culmination of the event, with the live performance of the contemporary sculptor Domenico Sepe.
Live Performance: The Living Sculpture Inspired by the Dancing Faun of Pompeii
Il Great Theater of Pompeii will transform into a ritual stage, where matter and gesture will dialogue live. At the opening, Dominic Sepe, an artist of national and international fame, will propose a “living sculpture” inspired by the famous Dancing Faun, a classical masterpiece from Pompeii, a symbol of energy, dance and rebirth.
- Technique and show: Sepe will use clay, metal alloys and earthy pigments to shape the body of a posing model. Every movement, every heartbeat, will become a creative act: the human body will gradually transform into a statue, in a succession of plastic gestures that will capture the gaze of the spectators.
- Symbolic meaning: Through this performance, the artist celebrates the resilience of art: the Faun – spirit of life in ancient Pompeii – returns, evoked in a contemporary rite, to remind us that even from rubble, beauty can be born.
Thanks to the excellent response obtained on social media in the previous weeks, the hashtag #LivingSculpturePompeii is already trending among art lovers, cultural tourism and film buffs: a virtual assurance that the event will be at the centre of international attention.
Domenico Sepe's Sculptural Awards: Bronze, Lava and Artistic Rebirth
Not just performance: Dominic Sepe he also signed the prize-works that will be awarded to the protagonists of the Festival. Two variants, both rich in symbolic references, have captured the interest of collectors and art critics:
- Bronze effect award
- Represents the Faun emerging from the lava stone of Vesuvius, as a metaphor for the creative force that flows from the abyss of memory.
- This recognition is already in the hands of Marco Risi, who with his film Fortapasc left an indelible mark on the history of Italian cinema.
- Bas-relief of the rebirth
- A work in relief that suggests, through fluid lines and contrasting surfaces, the concept of “artistic rebirth”.
- It will be awarded at the end of the evening to the winners of the main categories of the film competition.
These awards, an expression of a contemporary sculpture that dialogues with the archaeological context, constitute an ideal bridge between past and present, emphasizing the ability of the Pompeii International Film Festival to unite distant worlds in the name of creativity.
Special guests and award ceremony: from Neri Parenti to Luca Ward
The live broadcast of the final evening will be entrusted to the well-known actor and presenter Sergio Assisi, who, with kindness and sympathy, will guide the audience through moments of cinema, entertainment and music. There will be speeches by:
- Enrico Vanzina (Artistic Director), who will retrace the salient stages of the Festival and give space to curiosities about the behind the scenes.
- Annarita Borelli (President), who will illustrate the future prospects and cultural projects linked to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.
Lifetime Achievement Awards
Two true pillars of Italian cinema and dubbing will take the stage:
- Black Relatives
- Master of the film comedy, author of films capable of conquering entire audiences over the last three decades.
- Neri Parenti will receive from Domenico Sepe a bronze sculpture, depicting the Faun in a dance gesture, in recognition of his extraordinary ability to tell the story of Italy through the lightness of irony.
- Luca Ward
- Actor and voice actor with an “epic” and unmistakable voice, famous for having lent his vocal interpretation to great international icons such as Russell Crowe and Keanu Reeves.
- The prize for Luca Ward will be an unpublished bas-relief, which synthesizes the idea of “sound rebirth” and the evocative power of sound in the cinematographic field.
Guests, stars and personalities of the Festival
During the evening, famous faces from the world of Italian cinema, television and music will parade, including:
- Gianni Amelio (award-winning director), who will share reflections on the role of cultural heritage as a source of inspiration for the big screen.
- Amedeo Minghi (singer-songwriter), who will offer some of his emotional notes to underline the importance of the soundtrack in the film story.
- Alessandro Cecchi Paone (journalist and popularizer), will introduce short in-depth segments on the theme of “Cinema and archaeology”.
- Gino Rivieccio (actor and comedian), will share funny anecdotes from the backstage of famous film productions.
- Maria Sole Pollio e Susie Del Giudice (emerging actresses), will perform fragments of dialogues taken from films in competition.
- Contributions by Giovanni Esposito, Anna Gaia Sun, Salvatore Lionello, Mary Esposito, Antonella Morea, Alessandra Ierse, Paulitti Italic, Nazarene Nicoletti, Dario Formisano, Pierfrancesco Aiello, Emilia Fanetti Scarpati, Emilio Fallarino, Donatella Zaccagnini, Romina Capuano, Florence D'Antonio, Manfredi Russo.
To enhance the atmosphere, the vocal group Soul Food Vocalist, with its spiritual and gospel harmonies, will accompany the highlights of the evening, transforming the Teatro Grande in a place of fusion between contemporary arts and ancestral vibrations.
Monumental work by Domenico Sepe: art in dialogue with archaeology
To pay homage to the very essence of Pompei, the Festival will exhibit aunpublished monumental work of Sepe inside the Archaeological Park, just a few meters from the Teatro Grande.
- Description and meaning: A large-scale installation, made with elements of Vesuvian stone and transparent synthetic materials, which creates a visual effect of “emergence from the subsoil”.
- Connection with the territory: The work recalls the mystery of archaeological finds – fragmented vases, casts of bodies, traces of frescoes – revisiting them in a modern key. It thus becomes a symbol of continuity between past and present, illustrating how contemporary art can transform ruins into creative prospects.
Call to action for visitors
The installation will remain visible until sunset, inviting architecture enthusiasts and tourists to take photographs and share the experience on social media. The official hashtag for those who want to join the digital conversation is #ArtPompeii2025.
The last night of the festival: between myth, art and sensory suggestions
The conclusion of the Pompeii International Film Festival it will be an explosion of suggestions: the living sculpture, sculptural awards, tributes to Parenti and Ward, monologues and musical interventions will intertwine in an emotional journey that will involve all five senses.
- Visivo: The observation of the Faun taking shape, the monumental open-air installation, the lights designed to enhance the profiles of the statues.
- Auditory: Minghi's heartbreaking notes, the choir's spiritual songs, Luca Ward's epic dubbing.
- Tactile and kinesthetic: The audience will be able to get closer to the stage space, perceive the texture of the clay and stone during Sepe's performance, as an invitation to feel the birth of the work first-hand.
- Emotional: Amelio's stories on the value of memory, Parenti's smiles that recall the importance of smiling in cinema, Borelli and Vanzina's passionate words on the cultural future of Pompeii.
A multimedia and interactive experience
For those who cannot attend in person, the Festival has arranged a live streaming on official channels, accompanied by a augmented reality which will allow remote viewers to ideally “enter” the Archaeological Park and admire Sepe's monumental work in 3D.
Those who follow the event online will be able to interact with a dedicated chatbot, receive information on the films in competition and participate in a real-time survey to vote for their “Favorite Art Performance”.
The numbers of success: cultural tourism and media resonance
Il Pompeii International Film Festival it is not only an artistic event, but a driving force for cultural tourism e integrated promotion of the Campania region.
- Record participation: Over 2.500 attendees in the first three days, with spectators coming from all over Italy and Europe, fascinated by the idea of combining an archaeological visit and auteur cinema.
- Digital Engagement: More than 10.000 interactions on social media (likes, shares, comments) for content related to Domenico Sepe and the scheduled performances.
- Institutional collaborations: Partnership with the MiCs (Ministry of Culture), the Campania region, Pompeii Archaeological Park and several university institutes, including theUniversity of Naples Federico II , Second University of Naples, for screenwriting workshops and virtual restorations.
Conclusions: Pompeii, crossroads of art, cinema and cultural identity
The evening of 8 June 2025 al Teatro Grande represents the very essence of what the Pompeii International Film Festival intends to convey: an open dialogue between myth and modernity, between the millenary ruins , contemporary creativity.
- Dominic Sepe, with his living sculpture and his bronze and lava awards, has been able to infuse an unusual vitality into the stones of the past, transforming the creative process into a collective gesture.
- Black Relatives e Luca Ward, receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, have crowned professional stories made of cinema, laughter and unforgettable voices.
- A monumental work by Sepe placed among the ruins challenged the concept of linear time, suggesting that art, like archaeological remains, can endure and surprise beyond the centuries.
At the end of the evening, while the lights of the Teatro Grande will go out and only the moon above Vesuvius will illuminate the stones sculpted by time, visitors will take with them a vivid emotion: that of having participated in an event capable of intertwining auteur cinema, visual art, music e national cultural heritage, elevating Pompeii from a simple archaeological site to international crossroads of entertainment and imagination.
Il Pompeii International Film Festival he takes his leave with the promise to return next year, even more extensive, inclusive and surprising: because, after all, Pompeii is not only a "dead city", but a perpetual forge of narrative, e rebirth.
Article published on 6 June 2025 - 15:56
Video Chronicles
The idea of the festival in Pompeii is very interesting and could attract many tourists, but I hope that the organization is able to manage an event of this magnitude. Expectations are high for Domenico Sepe's performance.