Archivio Aperto Festival is a multidisciplinary festival organized by Fondazione Home Movies – National Family Film Archive (Bologna, Italy), dedicated to the rediscovery of memories and privately produced small-format moving-image heritage—family, experimental, and artistic films—in dialogue with public history and contemporary culture.

Founded in Bologna in 2007 as an open day granting public access to the Home Movies archive, the festival held its first official edition in 2008. Over the years, Archivio Aperto’s programme has expanded to include focuses and retrospectives dedicated to internationally renowned experimental filmmakers and masters of home-movie reuse, including Ross McElwee, Gustav Deutsch, Jonas Mekas, Boris Lehman, David Perlov, Maya Deren, Péter Forgács, Kenneth Anger, and Rose Lowder.

Since 2022, the festival has featured a competitive section devoted to documentary and experimental works centred on the reuse of archival materials and family memories. This is complemented by an extensive programme of screenings, talks, workshops, live film soundtracks, and installations exploring themes such as memory, microhistory, autobiographical storytelling, family archives, and small communities.

A true laboratory of the archive in motion, Archivio Aperto Festival is today Italy’s leading event for the screening, study, and critical reflection on the public use of private memories. Since 2023, the festival’s artistic direction has been entrusted to Sergio Fant and Giulia Simi.

The 19th edition of Archivio Aperto Festival will take place across several venues in Bologna from 22 to 26 October 2026 under the title Upside Down / Sottosopra, dedicated to those who have sought—and those who continue to seek—new possible worlds.

Films submitted to the Call for Films of the 19th edition of Archivio Aperto Festival may compete in two competitive sections:

1) International Competition. The International Competition of the 19th edition of Archivio Aperto is open to films of any genre – found–footage, documentary, experimental, video-essay, crossing over into fiction and animated cinema – on any medium and of any length, that focus on the memory and the archive, through the re-use of images and research that narrates the interweaving of individual stories and public history.

2) Frame Competition. The Open Frame Competition of Archivio Aperto is open to films of any genre – found–footage, documentary, experimental, video-essay, crossing over into fiction and animated cinema – and from any country, with a running time of 30 minutes or less, produced in academic, university, workshop, or residency contexts.

For any information, please send an e-mail to programming@archivioaperto.it

www.archivioaperto.it

Awards & Prizes

1) International Competition.
The selected films for the International Competition will participate for the following prizes, awarded by an international jury:
“Archivio Aperto – Best Feature Film Award” for the best film in Competition with a running time of 50 minutes or longer: €2,500
“Archivio Aperto – Best Short/Mid-Length Film Award” for the best film in Competition with a running time of less than 50 minutes: €1,000

Special mentions may also be awarded. The prizes will be paid out within 10 months from their attribution.

2) Open Frame Competition
The films selected for Open Frame Competition are eligible for an award consisting of free use of the audiovisual heritage of Fondazione Home Movies – National Family Film Archive, up to a value of €1,000.

Special mentions may also be awarded.

Rules & Terms

1) FILM SUBMISSION

For both competitions – the International Competition and the Open Frame Competition – submissions for selection to the 19th edition of Archivio Aperto close on July 31, 2026.
Films not yet publicly screened must have been their first screening after 1 January 2025.

- Early Bird Submission Deadline – By July 5, 2026. The submission of each film requires a fee of €10, as reimbursement of administrative expenses.
- Regular Submission Deadline – By July 31, 2026. The submission of each film requires a fee of €12, as reimbursement of administrative expenses.

Every film must be submitted through the FilmFreeway platform at the following link: https://filmfreeway.com/ArchivioAperto26

NB. If a film is not selected or if the submission is retracted, the fee cannot be refunded.

2) SELECTION

- International Competition. The selection committee decides the films that will participate in the International Competition and the programme, based on artistic quality and originality of language, with particular attention to works that use material from private and amateur archives and in connection with themes related to family memories.

No screening fees will be paid for films selected for the competition.
The selection will be notified by mid-August and published on the official website www.archivioaperto.it in early October.

- Open Frame Competition. The selection committee decides the films that will participate in the Open Frame Competition and in the program, based on artistic quality, originality, and experimentation with language, with particular attention to those that use materials from private and amateur archives and address themes related to contemporaneity and the social, political, cultural, and identity challenges of the present.

No screening fees will be paid for films selected for the competition.
The selection will be notified by mid-August and published on the official website www.archivioaperto.it in early October.

3) REQUIRED MATERIALS FOR THE SELECTED FILMS

- International Competition. In case of selection, directors, producers and/or distributors of the selected films must have to provide:
- a screening copy with English subtitles - if not in the original English language - in digital format (DCP - other formats must be agreed with the festival) or analogue format (Super8, 16mm or 35mm film);
- a list of dialogues in their original language and an English list of subtitles (.srt format) with the timecode of the definitive screening copy with a downloadable film file in low quality (preferably Vimeo link);
- a biography and updated filmography of the director;
- informations and promotion material about the film (credits of the film, film synopsis, stills, press kit, poster in digital format);
- a director’s statement concerning his/her work with the archival material re-used in the film and the list of the archive involved

- Open Frame Competition
In case of selection, directors, producers and/or distributors of the selected films must have to provide:
- a screening copy with English subtitles - if not in the original English language - in H264 digital format
- a list of dialogues in their original language and an English list of subtitles (.srt format) with the timecode of the definitive screening copy with a downloadable film file in low quality (preferably Vimeo link);
- a biography and updated filmography of the director;
- informations and promotion material about the film (credits of the film, film synopsis, stills, press kit, poster in digital format);
- a director’s statement concerning his/her work with the archival material re-used in the film and the list of the archive involved

4) OFFICIAL JURY
- International Competition- The festival jury will be composed of three representatives from the international film, artistic, and academic industry. The jury's decisions will be final and not subject to appeal.

- Open Frame Competition. The Open Frame jury will be composed of three representatives from the Italian film, artistic, and academic industry. The jury's decisions will be final and not subject to appeal.