Feature Films and Short Films in Competition at LFF 2025

The titles of the international feature film and short film competitions of the 21st edition of the Lucca Film Festival, which will be held in the Tuscan city from 20 to 28 September 2025, under the artistic direction of Nicola Borrelli, have been announced. The festival is made possible thanks to the contribution of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca. At the Lucca Film Festival there will be twelve Italian premieres presented in the feature film competition, and twelve short films from around the world will animate the competition dedicated to them. Admission to all screenings is free and – in addition to the jury prizes – both competitions will feature an Audience Award, where the public will be able to vote for their favorite film.

The International Feature Film Competition (link), curated by Stefano Giorgi and Mattia Fiorino, presents a selection of twelve films, screened from 20 to 26 September, from all over the world – from Russia to Germany, from the United States to China, Taiwan and Argentina – many of which have already been awarded at the most prestigious international festivals. The selection brings together debut works by young emerging directors and titles already consecrated at major international festivals, all original and innovative voices of world cinema. From intimate and autobiographical cinema to political and social narratives, from poetic explorations of nature to stories intertwining realism and dreamlike dimensions. A section that embraces different formats and styles, capable of offering a complex and multifaceted panorama of new trends in auteur cinema. The Feature Film Jury 2025 is composed of cinematographer Michele D’Attanasio, film editor Paola Freddi, and director, screenwriter and producer Mimmo Calopresti.

Debut works include the Russian A Place Far From Home by Diana Mashanova, shot in an orphanage on Lake Baikal; the German Im Haus meiner Eltern directed by Tim Ellrich, winner of the Special Jury Award – Tiger Competition in Rotterdam, an intimate film rigorously exploring family issues; East of Wall by the American Kate Beecroft, presented at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, set on a run-down ranch in the Badlands where Tabatha struggles to provide food for herself, her mother and the rebellious teenagers she shelters; and Under the Burning Sun by Yun Xie, winner of the Audience Award – Best Narrative Feature at the 2025 Slamdance Film Festival, a dystopian drama on the clandestinity of abortion.

Other debut works presented: Eel directed by Taiwanese Chu Chun-Teng, where a man meets a mysterious woman on an island near Taipei; the American In the Mouth directed by Cory Santilli, awarded with an Honorable Mention at Slamdance 2025, a black-and-white comedy noir blending social anxiety and surrealism in the story of a perpetually anxious man who has lived his entire life in isolation and finds himself unable to leave his house after discovering a giant version of himself protruding from his garden. Among the numerous debuts in the festival, China is represented by The Botanist by Jing Yi, already at the 2025 Berlinale, set in rural Xinjiang, an ode to nature through the eyes of a Kazakh boy in search of a special friend. The American Atropia by actress-director Hailey Gates, a debut presented at Sundance (where it won the Grand Jury Prize), produced by Luca Guadagnino and starring Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner, mixes military satire and comedy in a fictional city built to simulate an Iraqi war zone, close enough to Los Angeles to serve as a film set. Charliebird marks the directorial debut of Libby Ewing, in competition at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival and starring Samantha Smart and Gabriela Ochoa Perez, telling the unexpected bond between a music therapist and a rebellious young patient. Another debut is the German Punching the World by Constanze Klaue, at the 2025 Berlinale, exploring the dramatic story of two brothers in former East Germany. From Argentina comes The Message (El mensaje) written and directed by Iván Fund, Silver Bear – Jury Prize at the 2025 Berlinale, a road movie about a young girl who is a medium for animals across rural Argentina. Finally, from the United States, More Beautiful Perversions, second feature by Pavli Serentsky, winner of Best Narrative Feature at the 2025 Athens Film Festival. Shot in 16mm with ecological film processing, the film explores the intersection of nature, sexuality and queer identity.

The International Short Film Competition (link), curated by Laura Da Prato and Dario Ricci, in its 11th edition, brought over 800 works from around the world to Lucca. From 25 to 26 September, a selection of 12 premieres will be screened, including 2 world premieres and 1 European premiere – and for the first time – a documentary, all presented by their respective directors. In addition to the competing shorts, special events will be dedicated to them along with the screening of 4 out-of-competition films. An exceptional jury will award the best short films, composed of actress and director Chiara Caselli, director and screenwriter Lamberto Bava, and Belgian director and screenwriter Fabrice Du Welz.

The first documentary short to be presented in competition at the Lucca Film Festival is the British Beyond Eden, directed and shot by Al Johnstone, which tells – fifty years later – the story of a group of lesbians in the 1970s, from across the USA, who retreated into wild, untamed landscapes to build a world without men. World premiere for The Cat Ice, a Chinese/Japanese co-production directed by Hang Yang, which tells of a detective determined to uncover the truth behind a wife-murder case, bringing to light an incident from a decade earlier. Another world premiere, the French-American Chloé directed by Madeline Stephenson, takes us back to Normandy in the summer of 1944, when a 10-year-old girl kills a bird and is punished by her grandmother, against the looming echoes of war. From Belgium, Daniel Van den Berg is Dead, written, directed and edited by Ali Baharlou, a Kafkaesque tale of Daniel Van den Berg, mistakenly declared dead by the pension system, who must prove he is still alive. Russian director Farid Aziz presents Do Whatever, highlighting how there are two types of people: birds and the others. But not everyone is born with the ability to fly. When two very different people end up in the same family and find themselves confined together – first in a car, then in a house in the woods, then again in a car – each tries to pull the other to their side. From Germany, The Good Woman, directed by Masha Mollenhauer, tells the story of an artist, unintentionally pregnant, left with no choice by Poland’s restrictive abortion laws. From France, En Beauté, written and directed by Rémi Mardini: after fifty years together, Anne and Léon have decided to end their lives in style. Dressed in their finest clothes, they await the end hand in hand… but their plans are ruined when harmless pillow talk turns into a heated argument. Another French short, Papya, written and co-directed by Constance Delorme and Erwan Dean, tells of a grandfather passionate about ornithology who receives a visit from his four grandchildren for the holidays. Everything will be fine… In European premiere, the Indian short Moti, written and directed by Yash Saraf, tells the story of a dog named Moti who one day turns into a boy. According to scientists, he has begun to evolve, but in becoming human, he loses something vital: his incredible sense of smell, his canine way of navigating the world. Taiwanese director Kevin Tsung-Hsuan Yeh presents Stills Moving, in which a sculptor is diagnosed with ALS and gradually loses control of her body. Facing her impending fate, she pours all her heart and soul into her next work: a figurine of a little girl. A US/Mexico/Netherlands co-production, Synthesize Me is written, directed, edited and scored by Bear Damen, telling the story of the young daughter of a widowed electrician who retreats to her mother’s neglected music workshop to play and remember her. When she causes a blackout, tensions rise between father and daughter, pushing their grief to the limit. Finally, the British short Watch Me Burn, co-written and directed by Sofia Spotti, tells the story of Rue, who, after an accident that left her almost deaf, moves with her parents to a remote village, where she befriends a group of girls who convince her to commit an act of cruelty as a test of acceptance.

The Lucca Film Festival has already announced the presence of two major figures of Italian cinema: actor, director and screenwriter Michele Riondino and director and screenwriter Pietro Marcello, who will present respectively La valle dei sorrisi, a horror film directed by Paolo Strippoli, and Duse, dedicated to the legendary Italian actress.

There will also be space for the LFF For Future Competition, curated by Leonardo Galeassi, launched in 2023 in collaboration with the Sofidel Group, a global leader in the production of paper for hygienic and domestic use, known worldwide for the Regina brand.

The exhibition space of Palazzo Guinigi will host, from 10 to 28 September, the exhibition “Art Fiction”, curated by Alessandro Romanini, featuring works by Giuseppe Veneziano, a leading figure of the New Pop and Italian Newbrow movements. The Sicilian artist (b. 1971) presents 20 paintings intertwining cinematic references, pop culture, classical art and contemporary news, maintaining his bold and recognizable stylistic signature.