Rome Opens Its Film Festival with Moore, Bardem and Sarandon

The Rome Film Festival has reached its twenty-first edition, scheduled from 13 to 25 October at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone. The event, with Paola Malanga as artistic director, opens this year with a programme of awards that intertwines international cinema with high-profile Italian presences.

Julianne Moore receives the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Jesse Eisenberg on the occasion of the screening of “The Debut”, a film for which the American actor serves as director, screenwriter and performer. The same award goes to Javier Bardem, honoured by Paolo Sorrentino: the Spanish actor presents at the Festival “El ser querido” by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, included in the Best of 2026 section. The Industry Lifetime Achievement Award goes instead to British producer Tessa Ross, presented by director Edward Berger during the opening evening on 13 October.

Officially opening the event was Susan Sarandon, a guest of the Alice nella Città section dedicated to cinema for new generations. The actress received the Womenland Award 2026 and accompanied the preview of “The Accompanist”, the directorial debut of Zach Woods.

On the competition front, the Festival’s International Competition features eighteen films in contention, including five with Italian participation: three Italian films, one of which is a documentary, and two minority Italian co-productions. The presence of national productions alongside international titles confirms the approach of the Rome event, conceived as a showcase alternating major Hollywood names with European and Latin American auteur cinema.

The choice to pair lifetime achievement awards for figures such as Moore and Bardem with a specific industry recognition, awarded to a producer such as Tessa Ross, signals the Festival’s attention not only to star power but also to the less visible work that sustains international film production. The same applies to the Womenland Award given to Sarandon, intended to highlight women’s artistic paths in contemporary cinema.

It should be noted that, at the time of publication, the news comes from a single source — press releases from the Fondazione Cinema per Roma, picked up by outlets reporting on it — and there is not yet independent confirmation of the details regarding awards and guests.

The twenty-first edition of the Rome Film Festival will close on 25 October, with the International Competition awarding its prizes to the eighteen films in contention.