The Italian Film Festival in The Hague
Welcome to Frames of Italy, a celebration of Italian cinema, storytelling, and culture in the heart of The Hague.
Conceived as a festival within a festival at CineFilmFest in The Hague, Frames of Italy is entirely dedicated to Italian cinematic art, connecting contemporary stories with diverse local and international audiences.
Cinema has a unique ability to capture both the specific character of a nation and the universal threads of human experience. In a multicultural hub like The Hague, Frames of Italy acts as a dynamic and vibrant cultural crossroad. We celebrate the richness of Italian creativity while creating open spaces for dialogue with our Dutch hosts and global filmmakers.
Have you directed or produced a short movie that is centered on Italian culture, stories, memory, or everyday life (real, imagined, or reinterpreted) or that is connected with Italy in any meaningful way? Submit your short-film to Frames of Italy via FilmFreeway.
Call for Entries
We are seeking compelling short films that capture Italian life, history, memory, identity, or contemporary culture – real, imagined, or boldly reinterpreted.
- Eligibility: Short films (up to 25 minutes) connected to Italian themes, narratives, or creative talent.
- Exposure: Screen your work before an engaged local, international, and industry audience.
- In-person screenings: Selected short films screen at one of The Hague’s most beautiful historic cinemas.
- Submissions: Official selections are processed directly via FilmFreeway.
Why Frames of Italy?
Frames of Italy, the Italian Film Festival in The Hague, emerges from a series of local events our core team has been organising for years under the umbrella of IPN Cultura, the cultural branch of the most important Italian networking group in The Netherlands.
Our mission is to cultivate a permanent bridge between Italy, the Dutch host community, and the diverse international ecosystem of The Hague. We do this by introducing fresh, authentic cinematic voices from Italy to audiences who rarely encounter independent short-form Italian cinema on the local big screen and by creating an accessible gathering point where Dutch residents, expatriates, and the Italian community can meet, connect, and discover mutual creative interests.
Previous events
Our “Frames of Italy” 2026 Program – Dutch premiere screenings of beautiful Italian films
Following the success of our 2025 “Frames of Italy” event in The Hague and after our regular commitment to opening special evenings of Italian cinema in Utrecht, in 2026 we’ve started partnering with the recently renovated Pathé Buitenhof in The Hague to host special nights dedicated to Italian movies.
Featuring Dutch premiere screening of beautiful Italian films, these events extend beyond a standard screening, featuring curated introductions, filmmaker Q&As, and moderated post-film discussions that create engaging community events.
Through these events we’ve contributed to create a lively cinema-loving community that regularly meet to watch, discuss, and reflect on the art of doing cinema.
Our “Frames of Italy” 2025 event
To honor our Italian heritage, in 2025 we curated the first of our “Frames of Italy” events to showcase the innovative and timeless creativity of Italian filmmaking, music, art, and history at the Zeeheldentheater in The Hague. During this special night we hosted three screenings, each followed by a dedicated Q&A session with the respective actors, producers, and film experts. This event gave all participants a great opportunity to connect directly with the creative minds behind the films and resulted in a fully sold out, memorable event.
A glimpse into our 2025 “Frames of Italy” event
Shot in The Hague, directed by Vincenzo Toscani and produced by an Italian/Dutch cast and crew, the screening was followed by a dedicated Q&A with the director, actors, music score composer, and few film crew members.
Wee then jumped back in time, by screening Elvira Notari’s silent documentaries (1923), introduced by the film historian Vera de Lange (verascoop) and enhanced by live music. Elvira Coda Notari (1875 – 1946) is credited as the first female film director in Italy (and the second in Europe). She made over 60 feature films and about 100 shorts and documentaries, quite often writing the subjects and screenplays herself. She was also a prolific entrepreneur, producing documentaries on demand for the Italian community in New York City in the 1920s, unfortunately many of them are now lost. We watched two (silent) documentaries with live music to accompany the screening.
We ended the evening with another world première, this time of a music video for the song “The Geometry of Nothing” (Italy/NL, 2025), composed by the Italian musician Vito F. Mainolfi and performed by the Pentesilea Road band, again followed by a dedicated Q&A. Shot in The Hague, Monster beach, Voorburg, Campania (Italy), and more places around the world, this music video is produced by Filmshade Productions NL.
