Overview
Come October 2025 around Australia, Tomato Day will be back on the big screen, all thanks to Looking for Alibrandi's inclusion in this year's Italian Film Festival lineup. A quarter of a century has passed since the Pia Miranda (Invisible Boys)-starring Australian page-to-screen classic reached cinemas, so the nation's annual celebration of Italian movies has programmed the beloved picture based on Melina Marchetta's 1992 book in its closing-night slot. Audiences will get a particular filmic treat, too, given that the 4K restoration of the film will be gracing the screen.
So, as well as surveying the latest in Italian cinema — as IFF does every year, 2025 being no exception — there's an Aussie flavour to the festival this time around. Another example: the Greta Scacchi (Darby and Joan)-narrated Signorinella: Little Miss, with the team responsible for Lygon St — Si Parla Italiano turning their attention to Italian women who helped make the Italian Australian community what it is.
2025's Italian Film Festival kicks off in mid-September, starting in Canberra and Adelaide, then heading to Sydney, Melbourne, Ballarat, Brisbane, Byron Bay and Ballina, and Perth across a countrywide tour between Wednesday, September 17–Wednesday, October 22 (with dates varying depending on the location). While Looking for Alibrandi is on closing duties, romantic comedy Somebody to Love will get IFF 2024 started, as hailing from Perfect Strangers filmmaker Paolo Genovese.
In the festival's centrepiece slot is La Grazia, the latest from Paolo Sorrentino (Parthenope) — and, like The Hand of God, Loro and The Great Beauty, starring Toni Servillo. Its inclusion is quite the get for IFF, given that the movie will head to Australia direct from having its world premiere opening the 2025 Venice International Film Festival. Servillo is a significant feature of IFF's lineup this year, too, thanks to also appearing in Sicilian Letters and The Illusion, with the first focusing on Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro's time as a fugitive and the second heading back to Giuseppe Garibaldi's efforts in 1860 to unify Italy.
In another highlight, Napoli — New York sees Gabriele Salvatores (Cassanova's Return) chart the path of two Neapolitan children to New York in 1949 — and continue, as also evident courtesy of Looking for Alibrandi and Signorinella: Little Miss, the festival's celebration of migrant stories.
The must-sees keep coming from there, with IFF also screening 2024 Venice Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-winner The Mountain Bride — Vermiglio; Diamonds by Ferzan Özpetek; The Great Ambition, which won Elio Germano (Trust) the Best Actor Award at the David di Donatello Awards for portraying former Italian Communist Party leader Enrico Berlinguer; Italian box-office hit The Boy with the Pink Trousers; and the Valeria Golino (Maria)-led Fuori, a biopic about Italian feminist writer Goliarda Sapienza. Or, attendees can catch post-WWII-set drama My Place Is Here, as based on the novel by Daniela Porto; The Life Apart, which sports Vicenza as a backdrop; and Gianni Versace — Emperor of Dreams, as focused on the fashion icon.
And, for its blast from the pasts for 2025, the fest is embracing giallo, to the delight of horror and thriller fans. Think: a new 4K restoration of Dario Argento's Deep Red, alongside Lucio Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace, Pupi Avati's The House with Laughing Windows and Sergio Martino's All the Colours of the Dark.
Italian Film Festival 2025 Dates and Venues
Wednesday, September 17–Wednesday, October 15 — Palace Electric Cinema, Canberra
Wednesday, September 17–Tuesday, October 15 — Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas and Palace Nova Prospect Cinemas, Adelaide
Thursday, September 18–Wednesday, October 15 — Palace Moore Park, Palace Norton St, Palace Central and Chauvel Cinema, Sydney
Friday, September 19–Thursday, October 16 — The Astor Theatre, Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Church St, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Penny Lane, Palace Westgarth, The Kino, Pentridge Cinema and Cinema Nova, Melbourne
Saturday, September 20–Thursday, October 16 — Palace Regent Cinemas, Ballarat
Saturday, September 24–Wednesday, October 22 — Palace Barracks and Palace James Street, Brisbane
Thursday, September 25–Wednesday, October 15 — Palace Byron Bay and Ballina Fair Cinemas, Byron Bay and Ballina
Thursday, September 25–Wednesday, October 22 — Palace Raine Square, Luna Leederville, Luna on SX and Windsor Cinema, Perth
The 2025 Italian Film Festival tours Australia in September and October. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the festival website.