The 25th River to River Florence Indian Film Festival kicks off, the only festival in Italy entirely dedicated to the cinematography and culture of the Indian subcontinent, from 5 to 10 December at the Cinema La Compagnia in Florence (via Cavour 50/r) and in various spaces in the city, as part of the 50 Days of Cinema.
The only festival in Italy entirely dedicated to Indian cinema. Every year it brings the most original and innovative voices of Indian cinema to Florence, including previews, meetings with directors and actors, documentaries, short films and great restored classics. A cultural and artistic journey that unites two worlds through the power of stories and images.
The event tells the face of contemporary India. The festival, founded in 2001, directed by Selvaggia Velo and organized under the aegis of the Fondazione Sistema Toscana, with the contribution of the Tuscany Region, the Municipality of Florence, the CR Firenze Foundation and the Ministry for Information and Broadcasting, celebrates 25 years with six days of cinema (and more), including European and Italian premieres, international guests, thematic meetings, cooking shows and a photographic exhibition. Over twenty works are on the programme, including feature films, documentaries, short films and web series, many of which are directed by female directors.
The 2025 edition explores family dynamics, conflicts between tradition and modernity, the gender issue, environmentalism and evolving identities, with a careful look at auteur cinema, independent productions and major Bollywood successes.
The feature films, shorts and documentaries in competition form the heart of the event, accompanied by directors and actors. Among this year’s guests, the director Anurag Basuwhich opens the festival with the film Metro… In Dino, Varsha Bharath con Bad Girlpresented at the last IFFR – International Film Festival Rottherdam, Angela Pageproducer of the short Hariji Weds Register Of Prataya Saha.
On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, River to River, which has always been a virtual and cultural bridge between the Arno and the Ganges, inaugurates thespecial section “River”, dedicated to cinematic masterpieces that explore the symbolism of rivers in Indian culture. Among the titles scheduled“The River” by Jean Renoir (1951), the director’s first color feature film, shot entirely in India and based on the 1946 novel of the same name by the English writer Rumer Godden (Saturday 6 December, 6.30 pm) and the documentary “Boatman” (1994), the first medium-length film by director Gianfranco Rosi, a journey to discover the Ganges river and Benares, a city sacred to Hindus, where every day faithful and tourists flock to take part in the funeral rites (Monday 8 December, 6.30 pm).
Vari the anniversaries celebrated by River to River this year: the birth centenary of the master of Bengali cinema Ritwik Ghatakwhich the festival pays homage to with the screening of the masterpiece “The Subarna River” (1965) on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the film’s theatrical release (Sunday 7 December, 6.00 pm), set in 1947 after the division of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, which led to a large migratory exodus and violence between Hindu and Muslim communities; the thirtieth anniversary of Bollywood’s most famous love story that redefined the genre of Bollywood romance: “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” (1995) by Aditya Chopra, to whom the festival entrusts the closing of this edition (Wednesday 10th, at 8.30pm). Considered by critics to be one of the most iconic and influential films in the history of Indian cinemaacclaimed by the general international public, is the only film still present in cinema programming ““Marath a temple” in Mumbai, a theater famous for screening the film for a record period of 1009 weeks from 1995 to 2015.
Among the events worth mentioning, in Palazzo Vecchio, the exhibition “INDIA CALLING. Visual notes on India in Florence”, organized by the Accademia Italiana for the festival, in collaboration with the Municipality of Florence. A visual and multimedia journey with 30 works on display, portraits of people and stories, conceived by the Department of Photography of the Institute of Higher Education with a strong international vocation based in Florence and Rome, a point of reference in training for the creative industries of fashion, design, visual communication and photography. The exhibition (the vernissage will be on 5 December at 18, in the spaces of the Cortile della Dogana) investigates the Indian presence in the cultural, urban and human fabric of the city of Florence, and its territory, an intimate and contemporary story on the dialogue between two cultures, between visual research, narration and memory, with an attentive look at the details, gestures and human landscapes of everyday life, which contribute to creating a lively and stratified identity of Florence.
INFO FESTIVAL
FESTIVAL PROGRAM
