FESTIVAL INTERNAZIONALE DEL CINEMA DI SALERNO (79)

Festival start: 24 November 2025      Festival end: 29 November 2025

1. ORGANIZATION
The Salerno International Film Festival, with its registered office in Salerno, at Via Portacatena n.° 51 - 84121 Salerno (SA), Tax Code 80046160653, was founded in 1946 by CINECLUB SALERNO. For several years, a non-profit Organizing Committee has been established to manage the annual Editions.

2. OBJECTIVES AND AIMS
Since its inception, the Salerno International Film Festival has been a competitive event for Italian and international productions, offering a continuous forum for discussion on the developments of world cinema.

The Festival assigns cinema an important social function, and its purpose is to constantly adapt its approach to the evolution of technologies and new "audiovisual" media.

The Festival fulfills its original task of film dissemination and literacy, consistent with its tradition, with a particular focus on independent works and technical-artistic innovation.

3. FESTIVAL PROGRAM AND SCHEDULE
The 79th Salerno International Film Festival will take place in the City of Salerno from November 24th to 29th, 2025, at the Cine - Teatro Augusteo.

In addition to the Competitions for the various Film Sections, the Festival also features Reviews, Retrospectives and collateral activities (Exhibitions, Conferences, Round Tables, etc.), as a contribution to the dissemination of the History of Italian and International Cinema.

During the closing night on November 29th, 2025, awards will be presented to the winning films, and recognitions will be given to prominent figures in the artistic, social and cultural fields. The Awards Ceremony may also be divided into two specific evenings: one dedicated to “Specialized Cinematography” (documentaries, cartoons, etc.) and another dedicated to Feature Films and various recognitions.

The screening of the films will take place at the Cine – Teatro Augusteo and will be scheduled at the discretion of the Festival Direction, based on the submission date of the films and their prior selection.
Both the collateral events and the awards ceremony will be streamed live on the Festival’s official social media channels.

The festival's theme will be "Waves from the Future". Every era sends visions, background noises, distant echoes: waves that pass through us and speak to us even before they are understood. Some carry clear messages, others are distorted, ambiguous, elusive. But they all tell something about the world that is and the world that is to come.

What is the future communicating to us today?

What visions, themes, and narratives are already emerging in our present?

What do we perceive in a time marked by crisis, mutations, and hyper-technologies?

We invite authors and directors to capture, translate, and resonate with the waves coming from what is not yet.

Whether it's a near or distant future, collective or intimate; a dystopia, a hope, a question. We want to hear the beat of hidden stories, of faint signals, of innovative visions that will be the light of tomorrow.

The "Waves from the Future" theme will be given preference for selection purposes but is not binding: it represents a field of possibilities, an open wave.

3. BIS. VOD PLATFORM
To broaden the distribution of submitted films, the Salerno International Film Festival provides a dedicated VOD platform, active from October 15th to 31th, 2025.

During this period, both selected and non-selected films will be available for online viewing and voting, offering all participants an opportunity for visibility and the chance to compete for the Audience Award.

Viewing and voting on the platform require prior registration. Uploaded films cannot be downloaded.

Filmmakers who do not wish to make their film available on the VOD platform may still enter the competition: their film will still be reviewed and evaluated by the official jury.

Films will be selected by a dedicated committee, composed of members of the Festival Committee and industry experts, who will evaluate each work's admission to the Competition. The committee's decision is final and unappealable.

The admitted films will then be submitted to a TECHNICAL JURY, which will award the following prizes. The Jury's decisions are final:

• SPECIAL “AI & CINEMA” AWARD
For the film that best integrates new technologies into its narrative.

• SPECIAL “ECOFILM AWARD”
For the best film on an environmental theme.

• CATEGORY TROPHY for the various SECTIONS
If no film is deemed to excel above the others, the Category Trophy for that Section may not be awarded.
In each section, the Jury may also grant one or more awards for a film's special merits.

• GULF OF SALERNO GRAND TROPHY “IGNAZIO ROSSI”
for the overall best film.

Other awards will be assigned as follows:

• AUDIENCE AWARD, presented by the POPULAR JURY, which is composed of cinema enthusiasts. They will vote on the VOD platform between October 15 and 31 for one of the films available there.

• PRESS AWARD, presented by a jury of journalism and media professionals.

FESTIVAL SECTIONS

The Festival's Film Competitions are divided into various sections, namely:

1. Feature Films Section

2. Short Films Section

3. Television Fiction Section

4. Film Dossier Section

5. Cartoons Section

6. Commercials, Music Videos, and Smartphone Films Section

7. "VIDESCUOLA" Competition reserved for films made by students of all school levels.

8. "DISCOVERY CAMPANIA" Section. This section includes films (both documentaries and fiction) aimed at promoting places of social, cultural, and tourist interest in the Campania Region.

9. "THE language OF THE SEA/THE SEA TELLS" Section, for works (feature films, short films, or documentaries) that have THE SEA as their main setting.

10. "ECO-FILM" Competition: Feature films, short films, documentaries on environmental themes.

11. DOCUMENTARIES Competition

12. "CINEMA OF THE FUTURE" Competition: A section exclusively dedicated to short films made with artificial intelligence, deep learning, or through emerging production tools (smartphones, drones, AI).

MOVIE SPECIFICATIONS

• Feature Films must have a minimum running time of 60’.
• Short Films must have a maximum running time of 30’.
• Animation Films have no running time limits.
• Documentaries have no running time limits.

Works in a foreign language (except english)must be subtitled in Italian or english.

Works produced before January 1st, 2024, are not eligible for selection. It is not possible to participate with works already submitted in previous editions.


SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Submission to the Festival's Competitions can only be done through the indicated platform (Festhome).

For each film, a submission fee of €25.00 must be paid as a contribution to administrative costs. Films without the payment of the submission fee will not be admitted.

The final deadline for submission and sending of films to the Competitions is September 30th. 2025.


FILM SUBMISSION AND ADMISSION TO COMPETITIONS

Films must be uploaded online to the platform where the submissions made (HD or 4k file, H264 codec, .mov or .mp4, bitrate 20 Mbps), must be a maximum 10 GB, and the file download must be enabled until the end of the Festival, i.e., until November 30th, 2025.

The publication of the film in the event's catalog/program, which will be distributed online on the Festival's website and social media, serves as official notification of the work's admission to the Festival's Competitions.

Participants must inform themselves before the start of the event about the admission of their films to the Competitions and the date f any in-person screening.

Once a film is submitted to the competitions, it cannot be withdrawn by the participant.

An Artistic Committee, appointed by the Organization, will evaluate the submitted works and select those admitted for official in-person screening. The Committee's decision is unappealable.


GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. In case of an incomplete submission form, admission to the Competition is decided at the unappealable discretion of the Festival's artistic direction.

2. Each participant may submit one or more works. The submission fee must be paid for each film submitted.

3. All submitted films will become part of the Salerno International Film Festival's archive and may be used for cultural, educational, etc., purposes for public and/or television screenings. Commercial use is excluded.

4. Award winners will be notified by the Festival organization via e-mail or telephone.

5. Participation in the competition implies unconditional acceptance of these regulations.

6. These regulations are written in Italian and english. In case of interpretative conflict, the Italian version shall prevail.

7. The final program of the event, containing the works admitted to the Competition, can be consulted before the start of the Event on the website: http://www.festivaldelcinema.it/

8. For any matter not covered by these regulations, the Festival Direction reserves the right to make decisions at its unappealable discretion.

9. In the event of disputes or controversies, the competent court shall be the Court of Salerno, which will decide based on the Italian text of these regulations.

10. The author or rights holder of the work, by submitting it to the Festival, guarantees that they hold all necessary rights for participation, including those for music, images, and any performances present.

11. The Organization is exempt from any liability arising from disputes by third parties concerning the rights of the work.

12. The author/rights holder authorizes the Organization, free of charge, to screen the work during the festival days and in any future promotional events related to the event, as well as to publish excerpts of the work (max 3 min) for promotional purposes on TV, web, social media, and in print.

13. The personal data provided by participants will be processed in accordance with the European Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR).

14. The Data Controller is the Salerno International Film Festival.

15. The data will be used exclusively for purposes related to the organization, communication, and promotion of the Festival.

16. The data subject may at any time exercise the rights provided for in Articles 15-22 of the GDPR (access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, data portability) by writing to iscrizione@festivaldelcinema.it

17. The data will not be communicated to third parties or disseminated, except for purposes related to the management of the event.

18. The Organization reserves the right to modify these regulations for reasons of force majeure or to improve the running of the event. Any changes will be promptly communicated on the official website.