The 2025 Rome Film Fest will celebrate the work of Italian photographer Franco Pinna (1925-1978), one of the most important of the last century, with a series of initiatives marking the centenary of his birth. The official image for the festival’s 20th edition, running from October 15th to 26th, is drawn from his extraordinary portfolio.
The selected image is a shot taken on the set of Federico Fellini’s masterpiece, *Juliet of the Spirits*, which also marks its 60th anniversary this year. Fellini was the director with whom Pinna established his most significant personal and professional relationship. The dreamlike and amusing scene depicts a memory of Juliet (Giulietta Masina): the escape in a biplane of her beloved grandfather (Lou Gilbert) with a captivating circus performer (Sandra Milo). They are vainly pursued by scandal-averse, upright relatives and acquaintances. This sequence, blurring the line between reality and fantasy, culminates in a memorable race toward freedom against social conventions, with Federico Fellini visible from behind, megaphone in hand, ready to call “action.”
The 20th edition will further commemorate Pinna with a program of three parallel exhibitions, titled *Franco Pinna fotografo. Omaggio per un centenario* (Franco Pinna Photographer: A Centenary Tribute). The exhibitions are conceived and produced by the Franco Pinna Archive and OfficinaVisioni, curated by Paolo Pisanelli, in collaboration with Cinema del reale, Erratacorrige, and Big Sur. They will be displayed in some of the festival’s most emblematic venues.
The first, *Franco Pinna – Mondocinema*, will be open from October 15th to 27th in the foyer of the Sala Sinopoli at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone. It will feature a selection of one hundred images representing the formidable cinematic portfolio the photographer developed during the glorious twenty-year period between the 1950s and 1970s. The exhibition includes portraits of many leading Italian and international figures of the era, from popular to avant-garde cinema.
The second exhibition, *Franco Pinna and Pier Paolo Pasolini – Journey to the End of Mandrione*, will be held at the Casa del Cinema from October 10th to November 30th. For this occasion, Pinna’s reportage on the Roma population and sex workers in the Roman neighborhood of Mandrione (1956)—an absolute masterpiece of neorealist photography—will be presented for the first time through approximately fifty images. The photos will be paired, with a surprising affinity of vision, with texts by Pier Paolo Pasolini from his journalistic inquiry, *Viaggio per Roma e dintorni* (Journey Around Rome and its Environs), published in the weekly magazine “Vie Nuove” (1958).
The third exhibition, *Franco Pinna – Fellini on Stage!*, will be held outdoors along Via Veneto, the legendary street of *La Dolce Vita*. It is organized in collaboration with the First Municipality, the Via Veneto Association, and with the support of Molinari—the Italian sambuca producer celebrating its 80th anniversary this year.
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