The Italian Film festival is back with a selection of movies you canʼt see elsewhere on a big screen

There are some 27 movies in this year’s programme, running from films that have their roots in the country’s art cinema history, to retrospectives (including the 2000 hit Bread and Tulips and Ennio, the acclaimed documentary about film composing great Ennio Morricone), to those that have been big mainstream domestic hits.

Among that latter group is the wonderfully inventive Somebody to Love (Follemente), which was Italy’s biggest local film of 2025.

Reminiscent of Disney/Pixar’s animation Inside Out, in this real-person romantic comedy we go inside the minds of Lara and Piero as they navigate a first date. With a comic quartet personifying their thoughts in a running commentary (“Look interested! Amused smile!” Piero’s internal team implores. “Why doesn’t he kiss us?” demand Lara’s ladies), the script presents a clever portrait of male and female relationship-building, with contemporary preoccupations of picking the right mate while not putting a foot wrong.

Edoardo Leo and Pilar Fogliati are charming as the attractive couple. Watching both characters and their inner workings smoke pot is hilarious, before a superbly written finale that provides abundant laughs as well as reassurance that a good man might not be too hard to find.

For a gentler, less hysterical but incredibly touching vision of rural Italy, visit the vineyards and forests of Piedmont where elderly truffle hunter Igor (nonagenarian Umberto Orsini) is imposed upon when his concerned granddaughter Dalia comes to stay. Trifole is a low-budget, exquisitely shot feature that has the feel of an observational documentary.

Ydalie Turk is luminous as the reluctant Dalia, the archetypal city girl with “soft hands”, Igor remonstrates, who soon acclimatises to her grandpa’s basic cottage and sputtering shower. The ensuing story is fairly predictable but nicely painted, and Orsini (whose career began under Italian legend Luchino Visconti) is stunning as the grumpily independent old man. Soundtracked by beautiful classical motifs – the theme from Borodin’s Prince Igor recurs – Trifole is simple but succeeds in its efforts to highlight and honour a dying way of life.

Napoli – New York is a lush period drama starring the ubiquitous Pierfrancesco Favino (The Traitor) as purser of the cruise ship on which two young Neapolitan children stow away for the Big Apple. Amazingly, the film began life as a script by Federico Fellini, with director Gabriele Salvatores (Mediterraneo) taking the reins 80 years later to bring it to the screen.

Though the adult performances are all rather broad, preternaturally self-possessed orphans Carmine and Celestina are enchanting in this post-WWII look at two contrasting cities. The kids encounter risky situations and kindly strangers as the story moves apace from poverty to prosperity via a tale of immigrant struggle and an unexpected court case. Not all Salvatores’ directorial choices work but it’s nonetheless a lovely looking and impassioned film.

The Italian Film Festival is on in selected cinemas in Auckland, Whanganui, New Plymouth and Masterton before heading to other centres between July and November.