by InTrieste
The ShorTS International Film Festival will return to Trieste from June 26 to July 4, 2026, with a program that highlights the growing range and ambition of short-form cinema, from experimental micro-films to environmentally focused documentaries.
Now in its 27th edition, the festival announced lineups this week for three of its competitive sections: “Italia in ShorTS,” dedicated to contemporary Italian shorts; “ShorTS Express,” a showcase of films under five minutes; and “Eco-ShorTS,” centered on environmental themes.
The Italian competition includes Alessandro Rak’s Napoli 2500, a poetic reflection on Naples, and Nicola Eddy’s From the Sewers, about a professor whose memories become entangled with an artificial intelligence system he created. Alessandro Capitani’s Storia semiseria di un piccione viaggiatore, starring Alessandro Haber, and Antonello Matarazzo’s ’O Cunto d’Angelica, presented in world premiere, are also among the selections.
“ShorTS Express” will feature 23 films from 19 countries, emphasizing condensed storytelling and experimentation. Among them are La pista d’oro by Viren Beltramo, a portrait of a historic karting circuit near Rome, and Maria Luisa Usai’s Fiato, which transforms underwater archival footage into a meditation on identity and nature.
The festival’s environmental section, “Eco-ShorTS,” includes Gregor Božič’s Common Pear, about scientists studying agricultural archives, and Atomic Secrets by Kazakh filmmaker Zhanana Kurmasheva, which examines the long-term legacy of nuclear contamination in Kazakhstan.
Alongside its international outlook, the festival continues to reinforce Trieste’s role as a cultural crossroads in northeastern Italy, drawing filmmakers and audiences to a city that has increasingly positioned itself as a destination for independent cinema and cross-border artistic exchange.
