The films of "Cinema in Piazza" 2026 A summer dedicated to outdoor cinema together with Thom Yorke, Léa Seydoux, and Josh O’Connor

The first to announce the program of the 12th edition of Il Cinema in Piazza, organized and promoted by the Fondazione Piccolo America, was none other than the international website Indiewire. From June 28 to July 12, across the now iconic venues of Piazza San Cosimato, Parco della Cervelletta and Monte Ciocci, the event program was described by the outlet as «absurd» due to the number of guests that, as has been the case for several years now, the film festival has managed to invite. The lineup ranges from Léa Seydoux to Josh O’Connor, from the recent Palme d’Or winner for mise en scène Paweł Pawlikowski to Nicolas Winding Refn’s return to feature filmmaking, who, after the premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, will see his Her Private Hell screened in Italy.

Ninety-five screenings and thirty-four events for a summer that promises to be dedicated to cinema under the stars, as many as there are in the sky as on the stages set up for the event - although four of the events will take place at Cinema Troisi, whose inauguration will feature none other than Marco Bellocchio, who, in conversation with Stefano Nazzi and M¥SS KETA, will present the first part of his unmissable Portobello, which will conclude the following day with contributions from actresses Barbora Bobulova, Carlotta Gamba and Romana Maggiora Vergano, in a talk moderated by writer Lisa Ginzburg.

Each evening will begin at 9:15 PM, admission will be free and screenings will be in original version with subtitles, while Italian classics will have English subtitles. After collaborations with A24, Letterboxd and The Criterion Collection, this year Piccolo America has involved New York’s Film Forum, a key institution for independent and auteur cinema since 1970, for a special program curated by its historic founder and artistic director Bruce Goldstein, who will also be an honored guest.

On June 12, the third edition of Fr*cinema will take place, a queer film program curated by Pietro Turano and organized by Arcigay Roma together with the Fondazione Piccolo America, which at Piazza San Cosimato will conclude with a screening of Ballata Femmenella, presented by its protagonists Porpora Marcasciano, La Tarantina and Loredana Rossi.

A wealth of film programs ranging from auteur and mainstream cinema, with retrospectives dedicated to the Safdie brothers, Alice Rohrwacher, Hayao Miyazaki, Kenneth Anger, Gabriele Muccino, Steven Spielberg, Edgar Wright and Elio Petri. There will also be tributes and anniversaries, from screenings of Twin Peaks episodes to the 40th anniversary of the release of Blue Velvet, also by David Lynch.

Even nss edicola will be present with a collaboration featuring director Camilla Salvatore in conversation with Sabato De Sarno, Italian designer and former creative director of Gucci, who will introduce the documentary Il Capitone to the audience, a story about love, resistance and courage set in Naples.

Il Cinema in Piazza, although this year not sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, enjoys the support of the Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri, who said he is «happy to contribute to a beautiful and important edition that makes the city visible also at an international level. The quality is very high and collective enjoyment remains a value to be preserved, which places the event within the framework of promoting the city as a place to visit and experience thanks also to its cultural offering». The President of the Lazio Region, Francesco Rocca, agrees, supporting «a cinema that is in the square to remind us that it is an art around which an economy revolves that is too often underestimated»