Rome’s emerging Frocinema film festival dedicated to queer cinema is raising its international profile having secured several big names for its upcoming third edition that will feature an extended program of film screenings, workshops and talks.
The event – touted by organizers as Rome’s first queer film festival – will kick off March 30 with Robin Campillo introducing his AIDS activist drama “BPM (Beats Per Minute)”; Céline Sciamma will be on hand for the Italian premiere of newly re-edited version of her celebrated feature “Tomboy” that premiered at Berlin, where she received an honorary Teddy Award; and Zackary Drucker will present the European premiere of her HBO doc “Enigma” about 1970s disco diva and trans icon Amanda Lear.
Bartholomew Sammut, senior programmer for the Berlinale’s Panorama section and the fest’s Teddy Award Coordinator, is also among expected guests.
The fest’s name, Frocinema, reflects the event’s “concept of [cultural] re-appropriation,” according to a statement that explained how the term ‘frocio’ (which can be translated in english as ‘faggot’) “has been used as an insult and which, through irony, is now being emptied of its discriminatory meaning and re-semantized, becoming a [queer] banner,” the statement said.
The Frocinema fest is organised by Italian actor, writer, and LGBTQIA+ activist Pietro Turano who serves as artistic director, working in tandem with Arcigay Roma the local branch of Europe’s LGBTQIA+ association Arcigay, and the Piccolo America nonprofit association, a feisty group of young film buffs who operate a state-of the-art movie theatre called Cinema Troisi in central Rome and run outdoor summer arenas in Rome’s Piazza San Cosimato and other spots. The event is supported by Italy’s Soka Gakkai Buddhist Institute.
The fest also features a shorts’ film projects competition that this year is introducing a double prize: a €15,000 ($17,000) grant for production of a short fiction film and a €10,000 ($11,000) prize for the best short documentary project.
The extended event will have a grand finale on June 12, 2026 with a special outdoor event held in Piazza di San Cosimato featuring surprise guests to be announced in the coming weeks.
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