“The decision to choose the Teatro Cristallo is part of the festival’s strategy to incorporate new venues in the city and to conceive of culture in dialogue with Bolzano’s topography. The Teatro Cristallo has been an important cultural institution in the city for decades and a central meeting place for the local community. The fact that the venue also serves as a cinema with more than 400 seats makes it an ideal festival venue”, says Vincenzo Bugno, Artistic Director of the BFFB.
In collaboration with the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin, the festival opens on 15 April at 6 pm at the Teatro Cristallo with La ragazza con la valigia (1961) by Valerio Zurlini. The screening is dedicated to the actress Claudia Cardinale, who passed away in 2025.
The film tells the story of the young Aida, who is abandoned by her lover and finds refuge with his 16-year-old brother Lorenzo. A tender, compassionate relationship develops between the two, but it soon meets with resistance from the family.La ragazza con la valigia will be introduced by Carlo Chatrian, Director of the Museo Nazionale del Cinema.
“As one of the most beloved actresses of Italian and international cinema, Claudia Cardinale brought to life characters who enchanted generations of viewers” emphasises Carlo Chatrian, Director of the Museo Nazionale del Cinema. “The actress, who was equally at home in arthouse and genre films, was an icon of elegance and beauty. Endowed with a powerful stage presence, coupled with the carefree spirit that always distinguished her, the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin wished to commemorate her on the occasion of her recent passing with a selection of photographs by Angelo Frontoni, the ‘photographer of divas’, who knew how to capture that natural empathy which the actress was able to evoke.”
This is followed by Un anno di scuola (2025) by Laura Samani, loosely based on the novella Ein Schuljahr by Giani Stuparich from 1929. However, the film is set in Trieste in the 2000s: Fred, a Swedish girl, moves to the port city with her father and becomes the only girl in a final-year class full of boys. Amidst friendship, rivalry and first feelings, she tries to find her place in the group.Screenwriter Elisa Dondi and actors Pietro Giustolisi and Samuel Volturno will be present at the screening.
On 18 April at 4.30 pm, the BFFB will screen Gioia mia (2025) by Margherita Spampinato, a film from the children’s and youth section LiLi – Little Lights, which is featured in the weekend programme for the first time and invites young audiences as well as families to the festival. The film centres on Nico, a lively child from a modern, hyper-connected world, who spends the summer with a strictly religious aunt in an old Sicilian palazzo, far from the internet and technology and surrounded by legends and superstitions.
“We are delighted and proud to welcome the Bolzano Film Festival Bozen to the Teatro Cristallo. For us, this collaboration is both an important recognition and a valuable opportunity to strengthen the dialogue between our theatre and the city, and to open ourselves up to new audiences and forms of expression. The return of cinema to the Cristallo is part of a broader vision of accessibility and participation, in which cultural institutions work together to create shared opportunities for growth and encounter.” explains Gaia Carroli, director of the Teatro Cristallo.
The Teatro Cristallo was established in the Europa-Neustift district of Bolzano, which developed rapidly from the 1930s onwards with the construction of social housing and industrialisation. In 1954, the Cinema Teatro Cristallo opened and initially served as a theatre and temporary church for the newly established Regina Pacis parish. In the years that followed, the building became an important cultural and social hub for the neighbourhood. Following its closure in 1973 and subsequent refurbishment, the building was handed back to the parish in 1989. Since its comprehensive renovation beginning in 2001, the Teatro Cristallo has once again become a vibrant cultural centre with around 430 seats and a diverse programme of theatre, film, music and events.
Tickets for performances at the Teatro Cristallo can be purchased from 1 April at the box office in Streitergasse or online. Tickets will also be available at the Teatro Cristallo one hour before the start of the performances on 15 and 18 April.
For the LiLi screening, a reduced admission price of €5.00 applies to both children and adults.
Teatro Cristallo season ticket holders receive discounts on individual tickets (€7.00) and the festival pass (€40.00).
Further information on tickets and the programme can be found on the festival website: filmfestival.bz.it.
