EXCLUSIVE: The Piccolo America Foundation’s 12th edition of Il Cinema in Piazza has set game designer Hideo Kojima, Nicolas Winding Refn, Gaspar Noé, and Dario Argento for a marathon of screenings and conversations from July 4-6 billed “Five Carte Blanche Challenges – a New Project by Il Cinema in Piazza”.

Forget about watching movies at the Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, Il Cinema in Piazza is an outdoor film festival (free by the way, there’s no charge for tickets) which runs during the summer in Rome, Italy, a mixture of films and retrospectives chosen by auteurs. Sometimes it’s their own movies, sometimes it’s an auteur’s fave from another filmmaker. This year’s guests also include Jane Campion, Oliver Stone, Ian McKellen, Isabella Rossellini, Léa Seydoux, Thom Yorke, Jacques Audiard, Pablo Larraín, Paweł Pawlikowski, Rosario Dawson, Josh O’Connor, Marco Bellocchio and Matteo Garrone.

Il Cinema in Piazza will unfold across five distinct events in Rome and screenings spread between Cinema Troisi and the venues of Il Cinema in Piazza — San Cosimato, Cervelletta and Monte Ciocci. Full line-up is here.

On Saturday July 4, at San Cosimato in the heart of Trastevere, Kojima and Noé will discuss Jigoku by Nobuo Nakagawa. On Sunday July 5 Refn will bring his Cannes out of competition title to Cinema Troisi with a preview screening of Her Private Hell. That night, Refn will move to Cervelletta where he’ll present Deep Red with Argento, Kojima and Noé. The evening will conclude with an extraordinary midnight screening of Tony Scott’s vampire The Hunger (Miriam si sveglia a mezzanotte). The marathon will come to a close on Monday 6 July with Kojima returning to meet audiences for a double event: a screening of Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 by Shunya Itō at Cinema Troisi, followed by a tribute to Sergio Leone with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at Monte Ciocci.

The Piccolo America Foundation was founded by a group of young Romans committed to protecting the city’s cultural spaces. The org has spent more than a decade fighting against the abandonment of movie theatres in the city and their conversion into hotels, hospitality developments and shopping centers. Their mission has earned the support of Martin Scorsese and Renzo Piano, as well as the attention of Pope Leo XIV, who recently issued a public appeal calling for the protection of cultural venues.

Last November, Fondazione Piccolo America, via the org’s president Valerio Carocci organized an audience with Pope Leo XIV which counted such notable filmmakers and cinematic talent as Spike Lee, Nicolas Winding Refn, Darren Aronofsky, Monica Belluci, among many others.

Piccolo America were key in getting a proposed law in Italy withdrawn which would have empowered large-scale realtors to mow down 50 abandoned cinemas. The org rescued the historic Cinema America in Trastevere. In 2021, the group completed the restoration and reopened the single screen Cinema Troisi, a retrospective and premiere house which is open 24 hours a day, complete with cafe and student study hall.

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

Saturday, 4 July, 9:15 PM – Piazza San Cosimato

Hideo Kojima and Gaspar Noé present Jigoku by Nobuo Nakagawa

Sunday, 5 July, 5:30 PM – Cinema Troisi

Nicolas Winding Refn presents a preview screening of Her Private Hell

Sunday, 5 July, 9:15 PM

Cervelletta ParkDario Argento, Nicolas Winding Refn, Hideo Kojima and Gaspar Noé present Deep Red by Dario Argento

Sunday, 5 July, Midnight – Cervelletta Park

Nicolas Winding Refn presents The Hunger (Miriam si sveglia a mezzanotte) by Tony Scott

Monday, 6 July, 6:00 PM – Cinema Troisi ticket

Hideo Kojima presents Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 by Shunya Itō

Monday, 6 July, 9:15 PM – Monte Ciocci

Hideo Kojima presents The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by Sergio Leone