Espresso Cinema

Overview

Each spring, Brisbane's big screens spend a few weeks celebrating Italian movies. If you're keen to see flicks from the European nation at Australia's picture palaces beyond the annual Italian Film Festival, however, that isn't always guaranteed across the rest of the year. Espresso Cinema is doing its part to help change that — and, making its debut in the Queensland capital, that means hosting three screenings in 2025 that are giving a trio of Italian titles their Aussie premieres.

The place: New Farm Cinemas, where Espresso Cinema's lineup of new, applauded and award-winning films are flickering on a trio of individual dates. First up is The Story of Frank and Nina, with the movie series opening on Sunday, June 29 with the Milan-set, Paola Randi (Beata te)-directed and Ludovica Nasti (My Brilliant Friend)-starring recipient of the 2024 Venice Film Festival's Magic Lantern Award.

For a trip to the Alba white truffle region of Italy instead, Trifole plays on Sunday, July 20 — and charts the efforts of a Londoner (Ydalie Turk, who also co-wrote the film) making the journey back to Piedmont to look after her truffle-forager grandfather (Umberto Orsini, Marcel!), then following in his footsteps with his dog Birba to attempt to save his house.

Finally, come Sunday, August 31, documentary The Sleeper: The Lost Caravaggio wraps 2025's season up with the potential discovery of a lost piece by Caravaggio in an 80-year-old Madrid woman's lounge room.