For this 26th edition, the MedFilm Festival opens its doors to everyone. In the year when the unexpected knocked on our doors, MedFilm has found its new language, taking up the challenge to change and making it rich. Thanks to a synergistic partnership with the MYmovies platform, the whole program will be available online to the public from 9 al 20 November. The festival, chaired by Ginella Vocca and directed by Giulio Casadei, this year sees the participation of 70 film, representing 30 countries, of which 38 Italian premiere film, 4 international premiere film, 1 world premiere film.
“A new being together” is the theme of the 26th edition of the MedFilm Festival, in the name of the desire to meet and enjoy beauty together by sharing a space of cinematic experience that unites the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean area, bringing together Italy and the best of international film production, generating places for creative dialogue to support new talents and young people, amplifying what is heard softly, languages not decrypted: the voices of all peoples, the voices of the Mediterranean. The MedFilm therefore changes shape, but not essence. Its essence, remains: tenacious and confident. Able to see and create beauty. And it is from here, from the clear intangibility of this essence that emanates a message that today, even more than yesterday, it needs to be heard: push us beyond the known. #anewtogether.
FILMS IN COMPETITION
The Official Competition - Love Award & Psyche presents 8 film, for a cinematic journey between the two shores of the Mediterranean that will touch some crucial aspects of the contemporary: women's emancipation through sport in the Egyptian documentary Lift Like a Girl by Mayye Zayed, the housing emergency and the strength of family ties in Spanish La última primavera by Isabel Lamberti, the contradictions of Turkey today, between property speculation and drug trafficking, in Ghosts di Azra Deniz Okyay, the decolonization of the historical past in Francis Alÿs' Iraqi performance film Sandlines. The Iranian Careless Crime by Shakram Mokri and the Israeli The Death of Cinema and My Father Too by Dani Rosenberg, offer kaleidoscopic reflections on cinema, while the 
French On board by Guillaume Brac and the Palestinian Gaza my
love by Tarzan and Arab Nasser offer two luminous hymns to friendship and love.
For the Short Film Competition – 
Methexis Prize and Cervantes Prize Rome, we find 21 films in competition, coming from 18 Countries of the Euro-Mediterranean area, and directed by 12 register and 10 directors. The program addresses political and social issues, historical and environmental among the most urgent of our contemporary, from integration to information manipulation, from the gentrification of historic centers to the hidden removal of memory. Among the short films in competition, the previews of Li Paradisi by Manuel Marini stand out (on the painful consequences of the Xylella epidemic in Salento), Motorway 65 by the Greek video artist Evi Kalogiropoulou, Ya no duermo by the very young Spanish director Marina Palacio, Le Bain by Tunisian actress and producer Anissa Daoud, Microcassette – The Smallest Cassette I’ve Ever Seen of the Croatian couple Igor Bezinović and Ivana Pipal and Bethlehem 2001 of the Palestinian talent Ibrahim Handal.
OUT OF COMPETITION - Special events
In the out of competition stand out Nardjes A. 2019 di Karim Ainouz (coming soon with Reading Bloom), entirely shot with a smartphone, follows a day in the life of the Algerian activist Nardjes Asli during the protests of 2019; Rouge di Farid Bentoumi, on a short story "Erin Brockovich" who is fighting for the truth, and the short Correspondence, an exciting epistolary conversation filmed between Carla Simón and Dominga Sotomayor Castillo on maternity and family inheritance.
EUROPEAN CINEMA IN ROME: Lux Film Days a Roma
In collaboration with the Information Office of the European Parliament in Italy, MedFilm will host the IX edition of Lux Film Days in Rome. The historic section will host a retrospective of 6 finalist films of the Lux Prize of the last decade. Extraordinary films that tell the story of migrations, women's empowerment, war, school and childhood: Mediterranea by Jonas Carpignano, Sami Blood by Amanda Kernell, Estate 1993 say Carla Simon, As soon as I open Leyla Bouzid's eyes, Sole alto by Dalibor Matanic and Class Enemy by Rok Bicek.
TOMORROW, ALGERIA
Algeria, always at the center of reflection on the Mediterranean, will be present with a special retrospective of 8 titles, Tomorrow, Algeria, composed of medium and short films made by the best filmmakers of the Algerian nouvelle vague of the 1910s: Karim Moussaoui, Sofia Djama, Amin Sidi-Boumédiène, Hassen Ferhani, Dania Reymond, Damien Ounouri, Djamel Kerkar e Lamine Ammar-Khodja. Authors who with their cinema have told the hopes, the dreams and fears of youth, through science fiction, the fantasy, the amorous drama and the cinema of reality.
THE PEARL
As every year, great attention is paid to the authors of our cinema. The Pearls section: discovering Italian cinema presents the CSC medium-length film There is a wolf in the king's park, in which among the dense branches of the Parco della Favorita in Palermo, the director Virginia Nardelli observes children with delicacy, passers-by and prostitutes. 7 the short films among which the preview of Cracolice stands out, "Documentary by 
science fiction "by the young Calabrian director Fabio Serpa on the landing in the Tyrrhenian Sea of the famous" ships of poisons "in the early nineties. Among the shorts, the latest work by Kassim Yassin Saleh The wind under your feet
SHORT FROM PRISONS
Special films will also be found in the Corti dalle Prisons section, with three medium-length films that tell stories of resilience behind bars: Clenched fists. Alessandro Best's boxing in prison, Come, come closer by Giulia Gussago and A sandstorm by Andrea Galgata.
LOOKS FROM THE FUTURE
It is the section that collects the diploma works of 15 students of the Methexis jury, from Italian film schools, Albania, Algeria, Croatia, France, Greece, Spain, Slovenia, Morocco and Tunisia, to discover together the talents of tomorrow.
SPECIAL EVENTS
- MEDMeetings - 4th edition
This year also marks the start of MedFilm Works in Progress, a cura di Azza Chaabouni: a call open to fictional projects and creative documentaries in post-production from Italy and the countries of the southern shore of the Mediterranean. There are six films in competition: All our troubles by Davide Crudetti and Paola Di Mitri (Italy), Ethbet by Matteo Ferrarini (Italy), Hyphen di Reine Razzouk (Lebanon), Fragments from Heaven di Adnane Barak (Morocco), Black Medusa by Ismaël and Youssef Chebbi (Tunisia), Girlheart di Latifa Doghri e Salem Trabelsi (Tunisia).
Together with MedFilm WIPS, another novelty proposed as part of the MEDMeetings is the MedFilm Talents section, always curated by Azza Chaabouni, dedicated to emerging talents from Euro-Mediterranean countries. As part of the section, Two online meetings will be held between Methexis students and Florian Weghorn, Program Manager di Berlinale Talents. MedFilm Talents aims to become a key meeting point, in Rome and Lazio, identifying and recognizable, intended for emerging talents, Italian and Mediterranean authors and producers.
- “Voices from Syria and the region”.
In collaboration with the European Commission Representation in Italy, the Medfilm Festival is pleased to host the campaign carried out as part of the communication work of the EU Trust Fund in response to the Syrian crisis, with a selection of 5 videos that tell the stories of Iraqis, Jordanians, Lebanese and Syrians whose lives have been swept away by the war in Syria.
- #new words – IOM is a campaign that IOM has launched to stimulate an informed and less divisive debate on migration.
Masterclass with Susanna Nicchiarelli and Babak Karimi
In collaboration with the Department of Philosophy of the La Sapienza University of Rome, the Masterclass with Susanna Nicchiarelli will be held on Monday 9 November at 17:00 live on the social channels of the MedFilm Festival. They will talk to the director: Pietro Montani, Honorary Professor of Aesthetics, Sapienza University of Rome / Vilnius University, Stefano Velotti, Full Professor of Aesthetics; Dario Checchi, Professor of Aesthetics; Emiliano Morreale, Professor of Cinema History; Veronica flora, MedFilm Festival; Gianfranco Pannone, MedFilm Festival.
In collaboration with the ISO Department of the Italian Institute of Oriental Studies of the La Sapienza University of Rome, the Masterclass with Babak Karimi will be held on Friday 13 November at 17:00 live on the social channels of the MedFilm Festival. They will converse with the actor: Laura Guazzone, Professor of Contemporary History of the Arab World; Francesco Zappa, Professor of Islamistics; Mario Casari, Professor of Persian language and literature; Veronica flora, MedFilm Festival; Gianfranco Pannone, MedFilm Festival.
Readings from the Mediterranean – 6th edition
Four literary events dedicated to cinema, to fiction and the world of art. The sky, the water and the cat. Cinema according to nature by Franco Piavoli by Filippo Schillaci (Artdigiland Editions). ArabPop. Art and Literature in revolt from the Arab countries by Chiara Comito and Silvia Moresi (Mimesis Editions). Let the wind of Lorenzo de Las Plassas speak (Baldini + Castoldi). The section closes with a tribute dedicated to Rossana Rossanda: Roberto Silvestri intervenes (movie critic), Weather in Mariuccia Ciotta (movie critic) and Dafne Franceschetti (MedFilm Festival).
THE PRICES
CAREER AWARD to Babak Karimi
To be a bridge between the cultures of the Mediterranean, a sea that unites and does not divide. In every genre he explores and in all the stories he tells, Babak Karimi knows how to represent a cinema capable of breaking down barriers and erasing distances. Babak continuously gets involved because he is an interpreter who loves differences: it is thanks to these, and to the continuous comparison and exchange, that humanity has evolved over the centuries. With this Lifetime Achievement Award we intend to pay homage to an actor who represents his roots with his work, l’oikos, the world that hosts us and the common home that is our Mediterranean.
Koine AWARD 2020 to the NOVE ONLUS Association for the Pink Shuttle project in Kabul
The "Pink Shuttle" is a project born in Afghanistan, a Kabul, in May of 2019 with two minibuses, with whom women at the wheel accompany other women to work, at the University, or to the doctor. Forty years of war, the end of which is still not seen today, they have made the social life of women dangerous, who can leave the house only if accompanied by a male family member and cannot share public spaces with men who are not of the same family. Thanks to the "Pink Shuttle", women can move around the city and carry out their activities.
PREMIO AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
For the second consecutive year Amnesty International will award the Amnesty Prize for Human Rights to a film presented as part of the MedFilm Festival 2020. The awarding of the Prize will take place on Sunday 15 November.
THE JURY
high-profile jury, that of the Official Competition - Cupid and Psyche Award, which sees the directors Susanna Nicchiarelli and Valentina Pedicini, the screenwriter Heidrun Schleff, the cartoonist Zerocalcare and the university professor and researcher Donatella Della Ratta.
The MedFilm Works in Progress projects will instead be evaluated by a prestigious international jury composed of Dora Bouchoucha, Tunisian producer, Rana Eid, Lebanese director and sound designer, and Jonah A. Nazzaro, General Delegate of the Venice Critics' Week.
To award the prizes of the International Short Film Competition - Methexis Prize and Cervantes, a very special jury, formata da 15 graduating students from the European and Mediterranean National Film Schools and from inmates of the Roma Rebibbia prison, Third House Rome Rebibbia, Rome Rebibbia Female Prison, New Rome Rebibbia Complex. Sworn-students: Dorina Toci – Marubi Academy of Cinema and Multimedia in Tirana, Albania; Sid Ali Zaafoune – ISMAS: Higher Institute of Crafts and Performing Arts and Audio Visual di Algeri, Algeria; Emma Bilaver – SAF Animated Film School of Cakovec, Croatia; Pierre-Jean Delvolvé – The Femis, Paris; Kallidou Nefeli – Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – Fine Arts, Greece; Davide Salucci – Experimental Cinematography Center, Roma; Giorgia Flore – Sentieri Selvaggi film school, Roma; Youssef Allali – BAIT – Specialized Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual of Rabat, Morocco; Peter Bizjak – University of Ljubljana – Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, Slovenia; Youssef Sanheji – Higher Institute of Multimedia Arts of Manouba, Tunisia; Myriam Khammassi – Higher School of Audiovisual and Cinema of Tunis, Tunisia; Blanca Martin Secades, Jaime Sanchez Camacho, Pedro Munoz-Calero Franco, Zuhaitz Silva Garcia – ECAM School of Cinematography and Audiovisual of the Community of Madrid, Spain.
Special thanks to DAP – Ministry of Justice for the fundamental logistical support given to the Methexis Project.
Circa 40 university students will be an active part of the 26th edition of MedFilm. In collaboration with La Sapienza universities, Tor Vergata, Roma Tre, John Cabot, University of International Studies of Rome UNINT and Link Campus, students will have the opportunity to experience the event from within, going to form two parallel and autonomous juries to the official ones, one for each Competition (feature and short films) to which it will be entrusted with the important task of tracking down the works, with greater clarity and completeness, They have been able to communicate the themes proposed by the festival. Students of La Sapienza universities, UNINT and Link Campus will award the Unimed Prize to the best short film on intercultural dialogue in the Mediterranean.
Here is the presentation on our YOUTUBE channel:
The new edition of # MEDFF26 is here #1
The new edition of # MEDFF26 is here #2