The Cinema That Endures: The Picentia Short Film Festival Announces the Dates for Its 10th Edition and Its Partnership with Magna Graecia
Festival director Luca Capacchione unveils the concept for the 10th edition (September 21–27 in Battipaglia) and takes on the role of artistic director for the short films at the Magna Graecia Film Festival. The Picentia Short Film Festival celebrates its tenth anniversary and officially announces the dates and artistic vision for its highly anticipated “10th Edition.” From September 21 to 27, 2026, the international festival organized and produced by ACT Production will once again bring the Campania town of Battipaglia to life, centering its exploration on the concept “Echoes.” The festival’s founder and artistic director, Luca Capacchione, unveils the guiding theme: a landmark edition designed to explore the reverberations of existence, memory, and the constant perceptual and temporal shifts between past and present. The “echo” is not meant as nostalgia for what has already been experienced, but as a living vibration that resonates in the present, capable of guiding the new languages of short film toward an understanding of the contemporary world. “Reaching our tenth edition means looking back on the path we’ve traveled without ever ceasing to question the future of cinema,” declares founder and artistic director Luca Capacchione. “With ‘Echoes,’ we want to invite filmmakers to explore those traces, those memories, and those invisible transitions that continue to reverberate from the past into the present. Short-form cinema has the extraordinary ability to capture these immediate vibrations and transform them into universal visions.” As part of this journey of maturation and growth, the festival is introducing a historic structural innovation this year: the debut of “Over Time,” a new competitive section entirely dedicated to feature films, which will complement the official selection of short films to offer an even broader platform for expression and distribution to international directors and productions. The announcement of the tenth edition comes at a time of intense activity and institutional prestige for the Campania-based festival. As a testament to the artistic credibility it has earned in the field, the festival is renewing its collaboration with the Magna Graecia Film Festival in Calabria, where the Picentia team will once again oversee the short film section. The section will be led by Luca Capacchione (Artistic Director) and Jacopo Curcio (Technical Director). At the heart of this collaboration will be the presentation of the finalists in the “First Lights” section, a project conceived as a true incubator for the filmmakers of tomorrow, focused on supporting debuts and young talents from the Italian and international scenes. This collective effort reaffirms the Picentia Short Film Festival not only as a cultural hub in Southern Italy—capable of consistently engaging filmmakers and works from approximately 70 countries—but also as an active promoter of positive networks and artistic exchanges on a national and global scale.
