1. ORGANISATION
The Salerno International Film Festival, with its registered office at Via Portacatena, 51 – 84121 Salerno (SA), tax code 80046160653, was founded in 1946 by CINECLUB SALERNO, and the Organising Committee (a non-profit organisation) is responsible for staging the annual editions.
2. OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSES
Since its inception, the Salerno Film Festival has distinguished itself as a competitive event for Italian and international productions, thereby fostering ongoing dialogue on developments in world cinema.
The Festival attributes an important social function to cinema, and its aim is to constantly adapt its approach in line with the evolution of technology and new ‘audiovisual’ media.
The Festival fulfils its original mission of promoting and fostering film literacy, in keeping with its tradition, with a particular focus on independent works and technical and artistic innovation.
3. PROGRAMME
The 80th edition of the Salerno International Film Festival will take place in the city of Salerno from 23 to 28 November 2026 at the Cine-Teatro Augusteo.
In addition to the competitions for the various film sections, the Festival also features film programmes, retrospectives and side events (exhibitions, conferences, round-table discussions, etc.) as a contribution to raising awareness of the history of Italian and international cinema.
On the closing night of 28 November 2026, prizes will be awarded to the winning films and honours bestowed upon prominent figures in the artistic, social and cultural spheres. The Awards Ceremony may also be split into two separate evenings: one dedicated to ‘Specialised Cinema’ (documentaries, cartoons, etc.) and another dedicated to feature-length films and various other awards.
The films will be screened at the Cine-Teatro Augusteo, with the schedule to be determined at the discretion of the Festival Management, subject to the date of submission and the standard film entry procedures.
Both the side events and the awards ceremony will be streamed on the Festival’s social media channels.
The theme of the festival will be “Transitions: Cinema that Regenerates the Future”.
The 2026 edition takes place against a global backdrop marked by profound transitions: climatic, energy-related, technological, social, economic and cultural. These transformations are changing the way communities inhabit their territories, create value, communicate, consume resources, perceive the future and construct collective imaginaries. In this context, cinema cannot merely record reality; it can become a language capable of anticipating, interpreting and questioning it, while making complex processes understandable and accessible to all. The ecological transition, in particular, does not concern only the environment in a technical sense, but implies a shift in the way we conceive of the relationship between humanity, technology, the economy and nature. For this reason, the Festival proposes a cultural interpretation of sustainability: not merely a reduction in environmental impact, but a transformation of our perspective, narratives and social practices. Cinema thus becomes a driver of awareness and a catalyst for new collective responsibilities. his topic will be considered a preference for selection purposes but is not binding.
3 bis. AUDIENCE IN THE THEATRE
Audiences attending screenings during the festival will have the opportunity to cast a rating vote for each film they watch (votes are cast on a scale of 1 to 5, with an arithmetic mean calculated). These votes will determine the winner of the Audience Award.
