N.I.C.E. (New Italian Cinema Events) returns to the East Coast for its 36th edition. From November 7 to December 5, free screenings open to the public will take place in New York, Montclair and Princeton (New Jersey), Cambridge (Massachusetts) and Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), at historic venues and university campuses.
This year, the festival expands its reach with new stops at several leading American universities, to engage new generations of viewers, scholars of cinema and the Italian language, American film lovers and local communities. Founded in Florence in 1991 by Viviana Del Bianco, N.I.C.E. has promoted contemporary Italian cinema around the world for over three decades, with a network of screenings and events that spans Europe (Ireland, Latvia), the United States, Turkey (Istanbul), Georgia (Tbilisi) and Azerbaijan.
“More than thirty years have passed since our first arrival in the United States, but the enthusiasm is the same as on day one,” says Viviana Del Bianco. “In these uncertain times we are all living through, we are immensely grateful to the American public and to the institutions that have supported us for so long. I hope the university stops are only the first of many. Today more than ever, it is important to be together, and cinema is the perfect place to do it. I hope that, in the darkness of the theater, you will find comfort, joy and a sense of belonging. I hope each of you gets lost, and then finds yourself again, in these films. Enjoy the show!”
New York
The New York edition is hosted at two historic venues that have partnered with N.I.C.E. since its first U.S. edition: NYU’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, directed by Stefano Albertini, a longtime supporter of the festival, which this year hosts the program at The Iris Cantor Theatre; and the Italian Cultural Institute, now led by its new director Claudio Pagliara, who has shown great commitment to promoting Italian cinema. The festival is also twinned with Sudestival, directed by Michele Suma, a leading showcase for quality Italian cinema in Puglia.
The Program
November 7, New York (Italian Cultural Institute). The festival opens with Le bambine (Mosquitoes), the first narrative feature by sisters Valentina and Nicole Bertani. Inspired by their own childhood, the film follows three young girls in the summer of 1997 who form a little gang to defend their freedom. It competed at the 2025 Locarno Film Festival, where it received a Special Mention from the Youth Jury.
November 10 and 13, New Jersey. The festival travels to Montclair State University and Princeton University, at campus venues open to the public, with Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence (Elvira Notari. Oltre il silenzio) by Valerio Ciriaci. The documentary on Italy’s first female filmmaker of the twentieth century, which alternates archival material with reenacted sequences featuring Teresa Saponangelo as Elvira Notari, was selected for Orizzonti at the 2025 Venice Film Festival and won this year’s Globo d’Oro for Best Documentary.The Montclair event is organized with Teresa Fiore, Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies, and Tony Pemberton, Coordinator of the BFA Film and Television Program, both of Montclair State University. The Princeton event is held in collaboration with Anna Cellinese, Senior Lecturer in the Department of French and Italian.
November 16, New York (Organized by Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU, held at the Iris Cantor Theatre). New York takes center stage again with Anna, the directorial debut of actress Monica Guerritore, who also wrote the screenplay and plays Anna Magnani. It is an intense tribute to the screen diva, set on the night of the 1956 Academy Awards.
November 20, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Harvard University). Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence arrives at Harvard, in collaboration with the Consulate of Italy in Boston and with Chiara Trebaiocchi, Senior Preceptor in Italian and Coordinator of the Italian Language Program. The stop is especially meaningful: film historian Giuliana Bruno, Emmet Blakeney Gleason Research Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard and one of the leading scholars of Elvira Notari, appears in the film and will address the audience by video message.
December 4 and 5, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (University of Pennsylvania). The festival closes at Penn Cinema and Media Studies with a selection of seven films: Le città di pianura, Primavera, Orfeo, Anna, Le assaggiatrici, Un anno di scuola and Il rapimento di Arabella, featuring in-person guests, remote conversations and pre-recorded video introductions. The event is made possible with the support of the Consulate General of Italy in Philadelphia, PI-Philly, and the Penn Museum.
Guests
In New York, guests will include Milutin Dapčević, who plays “Carlino” in Le bambine (Mosquitoes), and Beatrice Grannò, known for the HBO series The White Lotus, who plays the young Carol Levi in Anna. Valerio Ciriaci and cinematographer Isaak Liptzin will meet audiences in Montclair, at Harvard and in Princeton. In Philadelphia, director Carolina Cavalli, whose second feature is Il rapimento di Arabella, will join for a Q&A.
The full program, with venues, addresses and showtimes, is available at www.nicefestival.org.
PRESS CONTACTS
U.S. Executive Director: Mila Tenaglia, [email protected]
Press contact: [email protected]
