Best Italian short movies

Our time (2019)

Roberta is a nine year old girl who wants to enjoy the last days of summer on the beach playing with her friends, while her father Donato forces her to stay at home to help with household chores. The distance between the two seems unbridgeable, but the discovery that Donato is much more fragile than it seems, will lead them to appreciate their time together.

Missoni (2010)

The Italian fashion house hired famed artist Kenneth Anger, who directed the films Scorpio Rising and Fireworks, to shoot the Missoni family modelling its fall collection. The video stays true to Anger's aesthetic, boasting lush colours and a trippy, dreamlike quality.

The Conclave and Election of Pope Pius XII (1939)

A short documentary covering the conclave and election of Pope Pius XII.

Just Breathe (2018)

An atmospheric short film about agoraphobia and anxiety, and the overwhelming feeling of walking in a crowded city like Venice.

Mother (2024)

A short revenge story, while the sun goes down.

Tontolini and Hypnotism (1910)

Polidor is a hypochondriac, so he goes to a hypnotist to have his neuroses dealt with. The hypnotist uses a feather to to hypnotize him, but doesn't turn it off properly, so Polidor goes into a trance on sighting anything with feathers. This means that he leans over in an impossible looking pose, and walks on.

Anonymous (2011)

Two people look for each other in Venice: a labyrinth of streets, bridges and water canals.

Water-Closet aka Waiting for a Defecation (1968)

A young man reads Ginsberg in his briefs, and shows off his body.

The Past Is Present (2018)

Winner of the "Racconta i 150 Anni di Ca' Foscari in 150 Secondi" competition at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice. A celebration of the different venues of the historic university, as seen from the eyes of a tired student who starts to feel the past history of those ancient venues all around her.

Cavalli ciechi (1967)

The last fishermen using the old fishing structures called trabucchi typical of the Gargano promontory.

Metamorphic (1991)

It is well known that the disposition of the images drawn by Escher are neither for animation nor for pre-animation; actually, quite the opposite. His images appear to be the carrying out of metamorphic dissolves. A bird gives way to the recognition of a house, which turns into fish, which turns into birds, and so on. Not a single flapping of wings takes place; everything is reiterated and fixed, becoming immersed in and re-emerging from a static continuum. All of Escher is an homage to one of the major animating forces of the cinema: the cross-dissolve. Precisely there, I found cinematic attitudes: in the house which turns into fish and in everything that transforms into something else. I gradually managed to figure out various types of non-existent sequences and then finally found myself dissolved, crossing over metamorphically. —P.G.

Il culto delle pietre (1967)

In Raiano, Italy, the feast of S. Venanzio is celebrated every year. Beside the official celebrations, the most secret and oldest ceremony is the "Cult of Stones": the devotees enter the caves where the saint used to live according to tradition, and rub their bodies on the stones to heal from evil.

Il campo (1968)

A poor family struggles to create a small field to cultivate in the middle of a marsh, until nature takes its toll.

Gli animali (1965)