‘The Baarìa Film Festival is an important promotional opportunity for our city. Not only will we celebrate cinema, but we will also have the opportunity to promote our territory, rich in history, art and traditions. I am happy that such an important private initiative is investing in our territory. Bagheria confirms itself as a centre of culture and a reference point for film lovers’. These were the words of the mayor of Bagheria, Filippo Maria Tripoli, at the presentation of the ‘Baarìa Film Festival’ (BFF), the first Italian festival entirely dedicated to ‘island cinema’.

The event, which will be held from 2 to 6 July 2025, was presented today, 22 February 2025, during a press conference held at Villa Butera coordinated by journalist Daniela Tornatore, an integral part of the festival’s organisation, and fellow journalist Andrea Di Quarto, creator of the project and BFF’s general manager.
The BFF aims to promote the cinematographic narration of island conditions, with particular reference to Sicily, offering an important showcase to emerging and established directors. The festival includes several sections:
– Archipelagos: BFF’s largest and most international section, with 10 fiction feature films from all over the world telling ‘island’ stories. A jury of experts will award prizes to the best film and the best performer, and the films will be screened at the Cinema Excelsior, two a day, after ‘Atolli’.
– Atolls: a section devoted to short films, with a selection of the best documentary essays by the students of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Cinematography Centre) of Palermo and other fiction shorts with an island theme, screened at the Cinema Excelsior in the early afternoon.
– Evenings in the Villa: 5 special evenings in the evocative setting of Villa Cattolica, with tributes to great Sicilian film-makers, film screenings and award ceremonies, one specifically dedicated to the Oscar-winning Giuseppe Tornatore from Bagheria. Each evening will be opened by rare early 20th century silent short films shot in Sicily, set to live music. Space will also be given to students from Bagheri schools who will award a prize.
The festival will have afternoon screenings in theatres and open-air evenings in one of Bagheria’s spectacular aristocratic villas: Villa Cattolica, permanent seat of the Guttuso Museum. Around the core of films, the festival programme will bring other appointments and events to various locations in the town: conferences, book presentations, tributes, and meetings with the public.
Each evening at the Villa will be opened by early 20th century silent short films shot in Sicily, five precious minutes, set to live music, from the archives of the Museo del Cinema in Turin, the Cineteca del Friuli, the Cineteca di Bologna and the Cineteca Italiana in Milan.

‘The birth of a film festival in Bagheria is an event we welcome with great enthusiasm,’ added Culture Councillor Daniele Vella. ‘This festival represents a unique opportunity to enhance our cultural heritage and landscape, and to attract visitors from all over the world. The municipal administration is proud to support this initiative’.

‘The Baarìa Film Festival is an ambitious project that was born out of a passion for cinema and a love for our land,’ said Andrea Di Quarto, the project’s creator and general director of the BFF. ‘We are convinced that this festival will become an unmissable event for all film enthusiasts.

‘It will be an opportunity to ‘isolate yourself’ in a paradise of good cinema,‘ anticipated artistic director Alberto Anile, “to rediscover Sicily and the other ”Sicilies’ scattered around the world.’

For more information on the Baarìa Film Festival and to stay up-to-date on the complete programme, visit the website www.baariafilmfestival.com
On the Facebook page of the Municipality of Bagheria, the speeches of the mayor and culture councillor Vella at the press conference are available.