73rd Trento Film Festival: unconfined exploration of the world’s mountains

Published 08/04/2025

126 films and 165 events are scheduled for an edition focusing on dialogue, exchanging ideas and fusion.
Leveghi: «The festival is an opportunity to lift up our eyes, analyse and understand our present situation and that of the planet’s “high lands”, collectively trying to imagine the future».

From 25 April to 4 May, Trentino’s largest city is ready to host a new edition of Trento Film Festival, with its 126 films and 165 appointments, in addition to over 100 further events as part of T4Future, the section dedicated to younger visitors. The full programme of this 73rd edition was announced at a press conference organised at the Anteo Palazzo del Cinema di Milano, in the presence of the President of Trento Film Festival Mauro Leveghi, Angelo Schena, cultural delegate of the General Chairman of Club Alpino Italiano Antonio Montani, the Festival’s Director Luana Bisesti, and Mauro Gervasini, in charge of the film programme. The Councillor for Culture and Vice-President of the Municipality of Trento, a partner of the festival, also participated.

«At this 73rd edition, the Trento Film Festival audience will again find plenty of opportunities to lift up their eyes, and through the images projected in the city cinemas, to venture on an undertaking that is both daring and necessary: to observe, analyse and understand our present situation and that of the planet’s “high lands”, identifying its suffering and potential, critical aspects and possible solutions, collectively trying to imagine its future» stated Festival President Mauro Leveghi. «In the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation designated by the UN, we could not fail to focus on these fragile giants. Glaciers will be featured at the festival not only thanks to the powerful image on the poster, the work of Sebastião Salgado, but also in a number of films selected for this edition. There are words of hope and tenacious resistance in Stefano Floreanini’s L’unico Superstite, featuring the last glacier in Friuli Venezia Giulia, the only one not to retreat in the last twenty years, and whispered music in Il canto del ghiaccio by Stefano Collizzolli and Paolo Ghisu, two directors from Trentino who decided to focus on listening to the Vedretta del Làres, in the Adamello range, home to Italy’s largest glacier. These are images, sounds and reflections that raise awareness and lead us to radically modify individual and collective behaviour, adopting a culture based on limits as a necessary context for all our actions».

« Trento Film Festival is the most important and most eagerly awaited film festival linked to the mountains in the world, bringing together key figures not only in the world of film, but also mountaineering, publishing and theatre, to discuss the most pressing and topical issues concerning mountain areas», stated Angelo Schena, cultural delegate of the General Chairman of Club Alpino Italiano Antonio Montani. «For CAI, film and literature are fundamental instruments for disseminating knowledge of and respect for the mountains. This year in Trento we will screen the premiere of the documentary Tra natura e quota. Giovanni Storti sopravvive alle Alpi Apuane by Giorgia Lorenzato and Manuel Zarpellon, with Giovanni Storti present in person at the cinema: it is a film made in the Apuan Alps that immerses the spectator in the extraordinary biodiversity of these places, with both levity and profundity, promoting safeguarding of the area. Another gem will be the book Fotogrammi in quota by Antonio Massena, dedicated to all the winners of Golden Gentians at Trento Film Festival».

There is already eager anticipation as regards the many guests at the 73rd edition, which promises to be exhilarating, recounting the different approaches of those who frequent the mountains in the most heterogeneous way possible. Space will therefore be given to mountaineers such as Matteo Della Bordella, Hervè Barmasse and Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll, climbers of the calibre of Maurizio “Manolo” Zanolla and Federica Mingolla, and explorers like Alex Bellini, as well as to exceptional presenters such as the former women’s fencing champion Margherita Granbassi and Camila Raznovich. The guest at the prizegiving ceremony for the ITAS Mountain Books Prize will be the journalist and writer Mario Calabresi, while the entrepreneur and activist Michil Costa will speak at the opening ceremony. The writer Mauro Corona and the musician Davide Van De Sfroos will be on stage in the Auditorium Santa Chiara for one of the events in the Cincontri programme – devised last year to allow the public to interact directly with some of the key players at the film festival – such as the comedian Giovanni Storti and the playwright Marco Paolini.

As revealed in February, the very popular Destination… section will take the public on a journey exploring Argentina, a land that has a consolidated relationship with Trentino as a result of migration and cultural, social, economic and mountaineering exchanges. It will be an opportunity to rediscover a country with a fascinating history, through seminars, events, workshops and concerts, such as the one to be held at the Istituto italiano di cumbia scheduled for 25 April at Parco Santa Chiara, in the context of celebrations for the 80th anniversary of Liberation Day.

The stars of the 73rd edition

«Like this year’s poster, I like to imagine that Trento Film Festival is also a sort of black and white snapshot» explains the Festival Director Luana Bisesti. «Indeed, to draw on Taoism and the concept of yin and yang, the festival has always operated with an awareness that everything has the seed of its otherness within itself: thus the cry of pain from Salgado’s glacier should not sound only as a requiem, but also as a warning and a call for action, spurring us on to find solutions to the problems that a now clearly unsustainable model of development has helped to create. Black and white, hope and distrust, proposals and condemnation, and virtuous and regrettable stories: this year we again wish provide our audience not with prearranged answers, but rather with elements useful for analysing our own era and imagining the future».

A substantial number of figures will be called on to tell the public at Trento Film Festival about Argentina, the guest country at this festival. Hervé Barmasse and Camila Raznovich will take us on a journey exploring a land where mountaineering, nature and complex political dynamics are closely interwoven: Argentina, the journey will be an evening characterised by intertwining stories of adventure and freedom, in the company of other special guests. At the far corners of the world – exploratory mountaineering from Patagonia to Greenland instead offers a dialogue between former Italian women’s fencing champion Margherita Granbassi and Matteo Della Bordella. Della Bordella will talk about his life climbing and his search for new lines on some of the most beautiful and remote mountains in the world. From the untouched peaks of Greenland, approached via kayak completely independently, to the mountains of Argentine Patagonia, where he followed in the footsteps of the Ragni di Lecco climbing association, with a clean modern style. This same style also characterises Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll’s approach to the mountains and adventure. He is a member of this year’s international jury, and in 2021 he was awarded the prestigious Piolet d’Or – the climbing “Oscar” – for his solo crossing of Fitz Roy, again in Argentine Patagonia. He will talk about this feat himself at a meeting with the public entitled The Moonwalk.

Other stimulating meetings will focus on safety and risk, as well as a sense of limits and respect for them. For example in South Face of the Marmolada: queen of the Dolomites, major routes and key players, a climbing evening that will explore over 120 years of history of the legendary “silver face”, recounted through the most significant ascents and the voices of the climbers, including Alessandro Gogna, Maurizio Giordani, Igor Koller, Maurizio “Manolo” Zanolla and Federica Mingolla. However, there is also Grade VI Enigma, an event involving three of the youngest and most promising mountaineers from the new generation – Mirco Grasso, Matteo De Zaiacomo and François Cazzanelli – who will talk about and discuss the search for limits in their respective feats.

The special participation of Don Luigi Ciotti, founder of the Libera association, will enrich the presentation of a book dedicated to the Frassati footpaths: a story rich in humanity, starting from the life of Pier Giorgio Frassati and reflections on his intense way of experiencing life and the mountains, to move towards peaks of joyful generosity.

A special evening will be dedicated to the winners of the 51st edition of the ITAS Mountain Books Prize. Guest Mario Calabresi will accompany the audience on a journey exploring the evolution of culture and literature in today’s society, also in the light of recent current affairs. The Spider and the Cowboy instead promises to be an extraordinary and moving evening made up of stories, anecdotes and music, to retrace the lives of the unforgettable Cesare Maestri, “Spider of the Dolomites” and Rolly Marchi, the eclectic journalist who devised the Topolino Tournament for young skiers, in the presence of several illustrious guests.

To conclude, the T4Future events are directed at younger visitors: a programme of screenings, workshops and activities designed to encourage image education and promote issues linked to sustainable development, environmental protection and active citizenship education, in cooperation with many local organisations. Over 100 events have been scheduled, many of which in the context of the National Plan for Image Education in Schools, promoted by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Merit.

The full programme is available from today on the website www.trentofestival.it