Ciaq - L'Aquila Film Festival 2026
Competition sections
The L'Aquila Film Festival 2026 – A Tribute to a City in Cinema, the festival that transforms L‘Eagle on a stage vibrant with stories and visions. In the beating heart of Abruzzo, our festival celebrates the indissoluble link between urban identity and the art of cinema, exploring the rebirth of a city that becomes an open-air film set.
From the intensity of Feature films authorial to experimental freshness of Short films, up to the civil force of Documentaries, The Ciaq offers a privileged window onto contemporary cinema. Each screening is a journey between memory and future, an invitation to rediscover architectural beauty through new lenses. Join us to experience a unique cultural event, where cinema becomes a tool for emotional reconstruction and a deep tribute to a city that never stops telling its story.
Feature Films: The Big Screen within the L'Aquila Walls
Author's Horizons: The Great Stories That Inhabit the City
The section Feature films The heart of the festival pulsates with the CIAQ Festival – L’Aquila Film Award 2026. Here, long-form cinema becomes a mirror of a complex urban identity, where narrative intertwines with the historic buildings and squares of L’Aquila. We select national and international works that elevate space to a protagonist, exploring the visceral bond between humans and architecture.
Taking part means immersing yourself in a total experience: from previews by established directors to first works by emerging talents, each screening stimulates dialogue about Urban regeneration And on collective memory. In a city rediscovering its beauty, the big screen serves as a bridge between past and future. The Ciaq transforms L'Aquila into an open-air set, inviting the public to be carried away by stories of resilience and transformation. A deserved tribute to a city that is, by nature, pure cinema.
Short Films: Fragments of Life in a Few Minutes
Little Masterpieces, Big Emotions: The Essence of Short Film
The section Short films it is the creative laboratory of the CIAQ – L'Aquila Film Award 2026 –, a space dedicated to experimentation and the swiftness of vision. In this category, brevity is an artistic challenge: to capture the essence of an emotion in a few minutes. We welcome works from independent filmmakers who, with an innovative eye, interpret the festival's theme: the city as a living, constantly changing organism.
The selected short films span different genres, offering fresh perspectives on urban everyday life. L'Aquila, suspended between history and modernity, becomes the ideal stage for these cinematic snippets that anticipate future languages. Valuing the short film format means investing in new talents in world cinematography. Each screening is a piece of a mosaic that forms the festival's identity: a tribute to the synthesis and communicative power of images, capable of changing the perception of an alleyway or an entire city.
Documentaries: Reality as Image
The Royal Cinema: Testimonies and Truth in the Heart of Abruzzo
The section Documentaries The CIAQ Festival – L'Aquila Film Award 2026 – is dedicated to those who seek cinema as a compass to interpret the present. The documentary acts as a bulwark of memory, offering an unfiltered look at the social and architectural transformations of our time. It is the focal point of civil debate, where cinema meets history to give voice back to communities that dream and rebuild.
In L'Aquila, the Documentary cinema It assumes a profound meaning. Our selection focuses on works that investigate the relationship between citizenship and territory, celebrating the beauty of resilience. Not simple reportages, but poetic narratives where photography transforms testimony into art. The Ciaq promotes documentary as a tool for not forgetting, inviting spectators and directors to a direct confrontation with the soul of the world. A necessary tribute to those who, with their camera, decide to stay and tell the truth as it is.
Out of Competition: Invited Excellence
Great Authors and Visions Beyond the Edges
The section Out of Competition del Festival CIAQ – L’Aquila Film Award 2026 – represents the space of prestige and absolute freedom of expression. This exclusive category is entirely reserved for selected works and invited by the Artistic Direction, chosen for their high cultural value and their ability to dialogue with the spirit of L'Aquila.
The films displayed in this display case of honour do not compete for the official prizes, breaking free from competitive logic to focus exclusively on the power of storytelling and visual impact. From the great masters of international cinema to the most anticipated premieres, the Out of Competition section offers audiences moments of pure cinematic celebration. It is a tribute to the seventh art in its purest form, a gift to the city that welcomes extraordinary visions without the need for any judgment, other than that of the spectators' hearts.