The Bari Puglia International Film Festival takes place in one of Italy’s most fascinating regions. Bari is a place where ancient and modern meet. Its evocative locations, rich gastronomic culture, and the hospitality of its inhabitants create a welcoming and vibrant atmosphere.
The final awards ceremony will take place in December 2026. It will be a showcase for local and international talent.
The festival has no genre restrictions; each participant can submit their own vision of cinema, free from all constraints.
The winners will be announced during the ceremony, and the most noteworthy short films will be screened.
Our internal jury is always on the lookout for new cinematic identities and is eager to get to work.
*To view the official Festival announcement, click here.
SELECTION 2026
coming soon
SELECTION 2025
Regia: Klaudio Gjeka
Produzione: Klaudio Gjeka, Leonardo Buso
Elio is a 20 year old boy who lives with his best friend Cassian. Costantino, the tenant disturbs the peace of the two friends but the arrival of someone from the past rekindles something in Elio that will lead him to make important decisions.
Regia: Klaudio Gjeka
Produzione: Klaudio Gjeka, Leonardo Buso
Elio is a 20 year old boy who lives with his best friend Cassian. Costantino, the tenant disturbs the peace of the two friends but the arrival of someone from the past rekindles something in Elio that will lead him to make important decisions.
Titolo:Foliage
Regia: Faye Shu
Produzione:Yayu Zheng
College students Ye and Abel meet in a Tibetan art history class. Bonded by a shared sense of being misfits in their own cultures and uncertainty about the future, they take a step into each other’s inner worlds.
Titolo:Frattempo
Regista: Davide Magaletti
Produzione: –
Michele is a simple man who diligently performs his duties as a shelf stocker at a shopping center.
His daily routine is repetitive and meticulously organized, just like his shelves.
On his way home from work, he notices a crane at a construction site and is always left petrified: he starts imagining himself inside that crate, as if transported to another dimension, lifted away from all responsibilities.
This fleeting escape gradually makes him question his choices more and more.
A fateful encounter with a slow-living artist will bring him back down to earth—but will drastically change his life.
Regia: Nina Baratta, Valerio Armati
Produzione: Federica Alderighi, Valeria Anci
A building in squatting: 60 rooms, 70 families, 50 children.
Two directors: Valerio who is 9 years old and Nina who is 39.
Two authors who share a great sensitivity come together to tell a delicate and complex reality, to tell what it means to live in squatting. There are interviews with the inhabitants who, through precise answers made up of numbers, try to bring order to the unknown space of the squatting and the “tableau vivants”, that show us the crystallized reality of those places, giving the viewer time to breathe them in deeply and make them their own.
An immersive path that can oscillate between the child’s imagination and reality, and that can take us into this often distant and exploited world in a simple and direct way, without rhetoric.
Regia: Rafael De Diego Arenas
Produzione: Rafael De Diego Arenas
Journalist Gabriela Polo and her partner Beatriz arrive at the home of Jaime Garrido, a charismatic conservative politician embroiled in a recent media controversy. As they prepare for an interview that promises to be a simple review of his career, tensions quickly escalate when Gabriela reveals a much more incisive objective: to confront Garrido with his moral contradictions and inappropriate behavior during a recent public event.
Through an intimate and poignant narrative, the short film unfolds as a verbal battle between power and journalism, between the public facade of a candidate and the truths that are trying to be buried beneath political pronouncements. As the questions become more personal and the silences more revealing, “Horizon on Fire” dismantles the protagonist’s public image to reveal the fragility, manipulation, and survival strategies of those who crave power.
The film’s tone, which ranges from political drama to psychological tension, invites reflection on public responsibility, the price of ambition, and the role of journalism as the last bastion of truth.
Regia: Gloria Regones
Produzione: –
“If the World Ends, we will be the Last to Die” is an observational documentary that explores life in the old town of Taranto through the eyes of its inhabitants.
Located in southern Italy, Taranto is a city of contrasts, renowned for its ancient roots and stunning position between two seas but also burdened by deep social and environmental challenges. Once an industrial powerhouse, the city has faced decades of decline, with severe pollution from its steel industry affecting the health of its residents and the surrounding environment. In the old town, these struggles are compounded by urban decay, poverty, and a sense of abandonment, even as a resilient community fights to preserve its identity.
We follow Franco, a former sailor in search of his house keys; Raissa, a young woman planning a grand celebration for her 18th birthday despite a recent loss; and Calogero, working to overcome his shyness and build stronger connections with those around him.
The labyrinth of narrow alleys and its open views of the sea is both freeing and suffocating. Its inhabitants see the surrounding sea as a call to freedom and openness, but the tangle of alleyways can sometimes make them feel watched, trapped, caught between the urge to leave and the will to stay.
In the end, a powerful truth emerges: if the world were truly to end, the old town of Taranto would be the last to fall, thanks to the unbreakable spirit of its people, united by a strength of character that drives them to live their lives as an endless adventure.
(English Title: CRUSHED)
Regista: GABRIELE LAZZARO
Produzione: SARABI PRODUCTIONS SRL
Francesca, a lawyer dedicated to protecting victims of domestic abuse, is assisting a young woman hospitalized after yet another brutal attack by her ex-boyfriend.
Regia: Antonio Paradiso
Produzione: Antonio Paradiso, Jonathan Leone
Pasquale Leone still tends to the small family vineyard he inherited, together with his son Jonathan.
We took part in the harvest with them—some things were explained to us, others we understood on our own.
Beneath the Devil’s Chair, traditions are still alive, and things are done the way they’re meant to be.
Regista: Louis Salvatore Bellanti
Produzione: Louis Salvatore Bellanti
Cloistered at home, Camille Claudel is confronted with her aging double who arrives in his workshop, Camille Claudel sees the dramas of her existence resurface and the influence of the artist she loved the most. In the twilight of his life, after having spent thirty years in an asylum, the whirlwind of his lost hopes grips him…
Regia: Giovanni Princigalli
Produzione: Giovanni Princigalli
Hector, a 14-year-old Cuban-Canadian, spends his last weekend in Montreal before his mother, Iulia, and her husband, Bruno, move to California to open an ice cream shop on the beach. Hector is deeply attached to the housing cooperative where he grew up and is anxious about leaving his familiar world. Before they leave, he must find the courage to confess his love to Noa, a girl his age who also lives in the cooperative. This significant journey coincides with a first kiss and the transition from childhood to adolescence. The film is dedicated to the memory of Pierre Jutras (1945-2023), filmmaker and screenwriter, and former director of the Cinémathèque Québécoise.
Regia: Nico Novak
Produzione: Victor Holl
Three chapters from the summer of Lucie, a resigned French teacher.
Just as she’s planning her vacation with her friend Marie, the latter bails. No matter, Lucie will go on her own!
Adventure is adventure… especially when the telephone falls on the tracks just as you’re about to board the train…
On the Ile de Ré, Lucie meets 15-year-old Madeleine, proud owner of a smartphone…
Regista: Riccardo Meli
Produzione: Fondente Produzione
One gets used to many things in life, but never, ever the loss of a child. “He” is nothing but that: the non-acceptance of tragic grief, or better yet, the dramatic manifestation — in the form of memories, thoughts, imaginations — of a mother’s immense grief over the untimely loss of her son.
Regista: Irene Gianeselli
Produzione: Valerio Rivieccio
Nessuno is a castaway, he comes from 1900. Nausikaa teaches him how to know himself.
Regia: Cassidy Rast, Odin Wadleigh
Produzione: Cassidy Rast, Odin Wadleigh
Food, water and the power of community. Take a journey to the heart of quirky Key West, the southernmost point in the United States to learn how people come together to live on one of the United States most unique islands. “Closer to Cuba then a Walmart” Follow local chef, waterman and community local, Paul Menta and learn what it means to live on this unique a island and what it means to treat everyday like it’s a hurricane.
Regista: Fabrizio Fusco
Produzione: OZ Film
The Lost Sky is a story that explores the bond between two brothers, whose love is tested by fear when their pure world, made up of vast forests and stretches of green, begins to deteriorate.
Regia: Valentin Devriès
Produzione: –
A company seminar is starting, providing an opportunity for a ‘collective deep breath.’ To reflect together on the company’s values, the facilitators have planned a playful yet serious exercise. Acting as a talking stick, a plastic ball circulates among the colleagues, some more motivated by the exercise than others.
Regia: Marina Resta
Produzione: Marina Resta
Traces of Rocco is a journey across the Basilicata of the past and of the present, in search of the iconographical and metaphorical traces of the Southern Italian poet, social researcher and politician Rocco Scotellaro. Developed as part of Zavattini Prize 2018/2019, it’s a documentary short-film that juxtaposes heterogeneous audiovisual materials, -archival and shot ad hoc with observational style- generating a short-circuit among the past and the present.
Regista: Guil Parreiras
Produzione: Guil Parreiras, Guilherme Nascimento
Haunted by heartbreak, a depressed painter obsesses over his artwork. But when a prying neighbor appears at his doorstep, he is forced to uncover traumatizing secrets.
Regia: Ishraful Khairy Zulkiffli
Produzione: Wong Mew Cheng
18-year-old Janna was raised by her adoptive parents, Rosmah and Osman. One day, Janna receives a mysterious letter addressed to her house for Mei Ling, and a woman appears in her life looking for Mei Ling as well. Janna goes on a journey to seek out this woman, who turns out to be her biological mother, Lim Li Ying.
Director: Lucia Rita Di Bari
Producer: –
An elderly woman from southern Italy lovingly cooks Sunday lunch in her home
Director: Nicolò Accettura
Producer: Ruggiero Cristallo
In a southern suburb, three middle school friends are called to face the urgent draft notice of the neighborhood, an event that becomes an unsettling metaphor for the transition to adulthood, filled with fears and uncertainties.
Andrea, along with his friends, finds himself caught in a race against time to find Martin, his young cousin, entrusted to him for the afternoon but who disappeared in a moment of distraction, possibly kidnapped by a military general, the dark legend of the neighborhood.
Director: Marco Scannicchio
Producer: Marco Scannicchio
A quaint, dusty dining room. Angela, who has long been in a state of confusion, is in front of her birthday cake, while around her the children (Benedetta, Cosimo, and Raffaele) and Aunt Lisa sing “Happy Birthday.”
Everyone is about to eat their slice of cake, but Angela refuses her piece, pushing the plate away. Her reaction causes a commotion among the siblings.
Director: Tomas Carrera Talamantes
Producer: Mrugesh Thakor
After a sudden aneurysm leaves Ben blind, he and his girlfriend Uma’s conversation about their future together unfolds through memories and shared moments.
Best Photography
Director: Sean Dugan
Producer: Sean Dugan, Susan Gorrell
A previously estranged father and son spend a rare, unexpectedly fun weekend reconnecting — until something unspoken becomes spoken. Can their fragile bond survive the truth? And whose truth is it?
Director: Tymoteusz Kałużewski
Producer: Polish film istitute (da verificare)
The film is about a death that occurs around the lives of two friends. The brother of a car mechanic is killed in a motorcycle accident. The tragedy is blamed on his friend, who, unable to come to terms with the death of someone close to them both, wanders off on a cursed motorcycle.
Director: Marco Locurcio
Producer: Stefano Cinti
Two characters confront each other in different situations: in a pub, in a car inside a parking lot, during a walk in the city. The main character gives a strong and cynical voice to prejudice and clichés, trying to convince the other who is opposed to them. The irony of the text is amplified by the caricatured behavior of the main character and the reactions of the interlocutor. The games, laughter, expressions and spontaneous attitudes of children underline the absurdity of prejudice and clichés in a world that is constantly evolving.
Director: Marzio Breglia
Producer: Marzio Breglia
Terra Battuta tells the untold story of a small Southern Italian town transformed by one of Europe’s largest earth dams: the Monte Cotugno dam. Through powerful archival footage, evocative landscapes, and a deep emotional narrative, the film retraces twelve years of social struggle, political resistance, and the unwavering fight of a community for work, dignity, and a future. A personal and collective journey through memory, resilience, and identity.
Director: Sarah Navratil
Producer: J.R. Hartigan
In a whirlwind of backstage drama and theatrical mishaps, eight quirky friends pour their hearts into a play, hoping for a financial miracle and finding an even greater treasure: a family of their own.
Main Information
SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
Calendar
Start: 20/03/2026
Spring Deadline: 17/04/2026
Regular deadline: 19/06/2026
Summer deadline: 17/07/2026
Late deadline: 18/08/2026
Extended deadline: 13/09/2026
Last call deadline: 03/10/2026
Notification date: 16/10/2026
Event date: 05/12/2026
*To register or for more information visit FilmFreeway.
CONTEST FOR SUBJECTS AND SCREENPLAYS
From 20/03/2026 to 20/09/2026
*To register or for more information, see the competition announcement here.
