CelebratingLives through cinema is the mission of the Biografilm Festival, which takes place every June in Bologna since its debut in 2005 (here an interview with its president, Andrea Romeo).
The festival focuses on documentary but does not neglect fiction—especially biopics—a genre as varied in form as it is rich in narrative possibility. Over its first fifteen editions, Biografilm established itself as one of Europe's leading documentary venues, while also championing Italian premieres of biographical fiction films yet to reach Italian screens.
Growing audience success led to the founding of I Wonder Pictures, a distribution house that in recent years has brought dozens of biographical and documentary films into Italian theaters, giving wider release to many titles first seen at the festival.
Both initiatives share a common purpose: to celebrate lives—not only those of famous figures, but the marginal stories of ordinary people, the invisible, ethnic and racial minorities, the socially excluded, all those who might otherwise have no voice and who often find one precisely through cinema's power to reach and move audiences.
The sixteenth edition, held June 5–15, was swept up in the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, like most cultural events worldwide. The courageous decision to proceed came at a time of deep uncertainty about the future. The selection, necessarily smaller than in previous years yet still substantial (over 40 films from 25 countries), moved entirely online, breaking free of Bologna's borders to reach homes across Italy.
The festival closed on the exact day Italian cinemas were permitted to reopen—a symbolic date marked by an awards ceremony with two hundred guests in attendance, a promising sign for optimism about the 2021 edition.