Cinema Ritrovato

A Symbol of the Cineteca

The Cinema Ritrovato (refound cinema) festival roams freely around the history of 20th-century film, moving from the eloquence of the first silent productions to the spectacles of CinemaScope. It navigates a maze of meandering paths along which a multitude of long-forgotten films can be rediscovered, having been given new life thanks to careful restorations. Without a doubt the Cinema Ritrovato festival is the Bologna Cineteca’s most important annual event, for the breadth of what it offers, plus its representativeness, cultural significance and longevity.

A Tale of Unknown Films

Founded in 1986 and promoted together with the Mostra Internazionale del Cinema Libero (international exhibition of Free Cinema), the event has always been inspired by unpredictability and surprise. Moving easily from the avant-garde to productions with more mass appeal, all in the name of an all-encompassing cinema, it collects together the residue which has long languished in the margins of history. And so this dense mass of unknown films, rediscovered or restored, launches us on a meandering journey through the themes, characters and settings that characterized the cinema of the last century. Each year the festival takes as it starting point films made exactly 100 years ago, sifting chronologically through the best of early cinema.

The Pleasures of the Road Less Travelled

Over the years the festival has developed into a kind of vast pleasure dome, thanks to an extensive network of collaborations that links Bologna to film libraries and archives around the world. Exciting and unusual experiences are guaranteed for all, from connoisseurs of certain stars, directors or genres to historians and students – or simply film lovers who enjoy sampling a remarkable and precious visual feast.