When cinema chooses Siena
There is a moment, between September and October, when Siena adds a new language to its already extraordinary ones: that of cinema. The Terra di Siena Film Festival, born in 1996 from the vision of journalist Maria Pia Corbelli, is today one of the main Italian film events dedicated to international independent cinema, capable of bringing to the city premieres, public meetings, and high-level masterclasses.
It is not a festival of pure entertainment: it is a careful look at the world, with a social, civil, and cultural soul. In recent years, the festival has focused on deep and urgent themes, such as environmental protection and child protection: cinema as a tool for awareness, even before being a spectacle.
What to see, who to meet
A program without genre boundaries
The festival embraces every cinematic form: feature films, short films, documentaries, experimental cinema, and animated works. A proposal that does not settle for a single language but explores cinema in all its variety, favoring the most original and courageous voices of global independent production.
Guests that leave a mark
Throughout its history, the festival has hosted prominent figures from Italian and international cinema: Susan Sarandon, Roman Polanski, Colin Firth, Giancarlo Giannini, Stefano Accorsi, Nino Manfredi, Manuel De Sica. Presences that have contributed to giving visibility and prestige to an event that grows from edition to edition.
The Senese d'Oro and the Green Carpet
The most important recognition of the festival is the Senese d'Oro, whose name derives from the first gold coin of the Republic of Siena: an award that carries with it history, identity, and the symbolic weight of a city that knows how to recognize talent.
The festival is also a pioneer of environmental sustainability: since the eighteenth edition, it has introduced the Green Carpet, an initiative designed to promote eco-sustainability in the world of cinema and cultural events.
A festival that lives the city
The Terra di Siena Film Festival does not close itself in theaters: it inhabits the city. The most memorable episode remains the screening of Super 8 Stories in Piazza del Campo, which gathered over 5,000 people under the Sienese sky. Cinema and square, in an embrace that only Siena can give.
Come discover it
Check the program at www.terradisienafilmfestival.eu and choose your films. Because some festivals are not just followed with the eyes: they are lived, one frame at a time.
Siena, between September and October.
Credits:
- Pietro Coccia
