The Italian Cultural Institute of Washington, in collaboration with the Centro Nazionale del Cortometraggio, presents the 2025 streaming edition of Dieci corti in giro per il mondo (Ten Shorts Around the World). This curated selection of ten contemporary Italian short films—spanning comedy, drama, and documentary—offers a diverse snapshot of today’s Italian short filmmaking scene.

Shorts in Italian with English subtitles.

SHORTS SELECTION

Comunque bene (Anyway, Fine)

2024 – 17′ – Beatrice Baldacci

How’s Lisa doing?

Hard to say! She’s 29 and already spotting her first gray hairs. She has no certainties in life: part-time jobs, waste-time romances, and an absent, dysfunctional family. On a day like any other, an unknown number contacts her by phone. After fourteen years, someone important to her reappears, asking for a decisive meeting.

Street food

2024 – 12′ – Paolina Gramegna

Among the gray buildings of Rome’s suburbs, Valeria looks after her family’s historic food truck. With an alcoholic father and an absent boyfriend, she lives her life in invisibility—until a shocking event leads her to question who she really is.

Il cimino torna su (Cimino Rises Again)

2024 – 16′ – Samuele Brambilla

Through a path of memories and secrets, we revisit the golden era of smuggling around Lake Como, seen through the eyes of its key players: two finance police officers and a former smuggler. Brought together for a mission to the Swiss border, they must escort a sculpture to the village of Erbonne—a tribute from the lake’s people to the smugglers, local heroes of the past.

La notte (The Night)

2023 – 6′ – Martina Generali, Simone Pratola, Francesca Sofia Rosso

Venice Carnival: Pulcinella tries—unsuccessfully—to sneak into an exclusive VIP party. Amid opulent masks, gastronomic triumphs, and alluring women, his dream of wealth turns into a nightmare that reveals the value of his simple but authentic life. The short is based on Vivaldi’s Concerto RV 439, La Notte.

Dieci secondi (Ten Seconds)

2024 – 12′ – Roberta Palmieri

A little girl plays hide-and-seek with her family, but when she comes out of hiding, nothing is the same anymore.

Fiorellina

2024 – 8′ – Giorgia Ciraolo

Fiorellina is a 71-year-old street vendor who walks along the beach with her cart, warmly greeted by children and other sellers. As her days unfold, a quiet melancholy subtly emerges.

Padre (Father)

2024 – 19′ – Michele Gallone

In a near future, emotions are for sale. It was a painful decision, but Francesco has chosen to sell his love for his daughter Anna—something he never would have done if her life hadn’t been threatened by a terminal illness. The buyer is Mario, a man driven by an ambiguous sense of sacrifice, at the highest price a father could ever pay.

Love and Chewin Gum

2024 – 13′ – Arianna Di Stefano

Riccardo is 13 and in love with the most beautiful girl in school. How will he manage to kiss her? A fun and original story about teenage feelings, growing up, and first love.

Ahinco

2024 – 23′ – Simona Palmieri

Manolo is the newsstand owner on Via Roen—or at least, that’s how the locals know him. But behind the daily theater of the elderly passing by his kiosk lies a story of pain and loneliness.

Dolci acque (Sweet Waters)

2024 – 20′ – Luca Grazioli

Renzo and Monica spend the summer at her family’s villa by the lake, weaving a relationship built on small gestures and photographs.