Salerno International Film Festival
A Legacy of Innovation Since 1946
Salerno International Film Festival: A Legacy of Innovation Since 1946
The history of the Salerno International Film Festival is rooted in the fervor of post-war Italy. In 1945, a group of friends bound by a deep passion founded the Cine Club Salerno, a non-profit cultural association with an ambitious goal: to promote culture through the power of moving images.
Just one year later, in 1946, this vision was brought to life with the 1st National Exhibition of “Passo Ridotto” Cinema, the forerunner event that, growing year after year, would become the Salerno International Film Festival.
The “Passo Ridotto” Revolution
The concept of Passo Ridotto (reduced gauge) was a revolutionary insight with a dual purpose. On one hand, it welcomed productions shot in the standard 8mm and 16mm formats typically submitted to festivals. On the other, by converting major 35mm films – which at the time could only be screened in large city theaters – to the more portable 16mm “reduced” format, it made them widely accessible.
This innovation democratized access to cinema, allowing great Italian films to reach a vast audience. A fundamental contribution came from the cultural and entrepreneurial foresight of Ignazio Rossi who, ahead of his time, founded the distribution company “FILMITALIA”. Thanks to this initiative, Italian cinematic masterpieces were distributed extensively throughout Italy and abroad.
Cinema Everywhere: From Transatlantic Liners to Local Villages
The Festival’s ambition knew no bounds, neither geographical nor social, with a mission to bring cinema to where it had never been before. It sailed the oceans aboard the great Italian transatlantic liners headed for the Americas, offering comfort and entertainment to our emigrants.
Meanwhile, on land, the commitment to spreading cinema was not confined to Salerno’s city limits. Every day, a fleet of ‘cinemobili’ (mobile cinemas) traveled from our city along the roads of the provincial hinterland. As evening fell, town squares and churchyards would light up, transforming into open-air cinemas where the seventh art became a community event. It was an unprecedented cultural mission, symbolically uniting our distant compatriots and the most isolated communities of our land.
Salerno: A Capital of Audiovisual Innovation
The Festival’s pioneering spirit extended beyond entertainment. The founders – including Ignazio Rossi, Matteo Della Corte, Achille Guglielmi and others, many of whom were eminent physicians and surgeons – introduced the film camera into the operating room. They used cinema as a tool to analyze and perfect surgical techniques, giving birth to what we now know as the audiovisual method for medical training. Salerno, already the cradle of the historic Schola Medica Salernitana, launched a new educational standard to the world.
The Cine Club Salerno also became a global benchmark for the technology industry. In the world conferences hosted in Salerno, photo-cinematographic companies established landmark innovations: it was here that new standards were set, such as the shift from 8mm to Super8and the market launch of the disposable camera.
An Ever-Evolving Festival
True to its innovative calling, the Festival has continued to expand its horizons, integrating new art forms and knowledge.
We were among the first to include TV Fiction in our official competitions, to develop a dedicated medical-scientific section (“Curarsi con il Cinema” – Healing with Cinema, curated by Dr. Davide Amendola), and to invest in training the next generation. Projects like the curricular cinematography school (“Project Archimede” with the ITC Genovesi, made possible by the foresight of Principal Caterina Cimino) and the strategic partnership with the University of Salerno are a testament to this ongoing commitment.
The Festival is a living organism, fueled by an inexhaustible energy: that of our staff. It is a team animated by the pure passion of its volunteers, one that never stands still, that researches, experiments, and anticipates trends to offer young people ever-new tools. Our gaze is already set on tomorrow: we are developing brand-new initiatives to exceed all expectations, keeping the bar for quality and our cultural offerings exceptionally high.