In 1903 Méliès was at the peak of his art, creating wonderful gems such as Le Royaume des fées, a film destined to be the centrepiece of a programme made up of several genres, always with its fair share of short comedies and visual tricks. While British pioneers were contributing to cinema with their innovative spirit, in the US – see Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery – violence and plot-driven films were already happening. In the same year, Pathé frères ambitiously rivalled the grand féeries with spectacular productions by Lucien Nonguet about historical figures (Napoléon, Marie Antoinette). Several Pathé titles – part of the Corricks (itinerant showmen) collection – will be presented in restored versions originating from gorgeously hand-coloured prints found in Australia. But there was more to cinema than just these international productions: local cinematographers have documented their 1903 in unique moving images. Prepare yourself to be charmed by the talented Herr Mohr, a bank employee from Kronberg, dancing in drag!
Curated by Mariann Lewinsky and Karl Wratschko

Now in its 20th anniversary year, the One Hundred Years Ago section continues its annual exploration of a single year in cinema’s rich and varied history with a selection of enduring classics and archival rarities as well as thought-provoking documentaries from 1923. This year we turn our attention to the exiled Russian filmmakers working at the studio Films Albatros in France, the birth of the western as a serious genre in Hollywood, the pinnacle of expressionist cinema in Germany, and the last embers of the diva film genre in Italy. Newsreel footage of the time, meanwhile, preserves major events for posterity on film, such as the Great Kantō earthquake devastating Tokyo or the discovery of Tut-Ankh-Amun’s tomb. The majority of the films in the programme will be screened on 35mm, but we will also present a handful of new digital restorations.
Curated by Oliver Hanley

Le Brasier ardent (The Burning Crucible, Braciere ardente, 1923) di Ivan Mosjoukine • Gossette (secondo episodio, 1923) di Germaine Dulac • La Maison du mystère (1923) di Alexander Volkoff • L’Auberge rouge (The Red Inn, Albergo rosso, 1923) di Jean Epstein • Dnevnik Glumova (Glumov’s Diary, 1923) di Sergei Eisenstein • Schatten, eine nächtliche Halluzination (Warning Shadows, 1923) di Arthur Robinson • Our Hospitality (Accidenti e che ospitalità, 1923) di John G. Blystone e Buster Keaton • The Covered Wagon (I pionieri, 1923) di James Cruze) • L’ombra (The Shadow, 1923) di Mario Almirante • La Montagne infidèle (1923) di Jean Epstein

After multiple viewings of  Albert Samama Chikli’s work in recent editions, we are ready to share some (spectacular) findings that have surfaced from the archives of this remarkable personality, now entrusted to the Cineteca di Bologna by his family. The study of letters, invoices, handwritten notes and photographs revealed the workings of a career behind the camera spanning from 1905 to 1924, allowing us to establish, for the first time, a filmography of over 100 titles. All in all, Albert Samama can no longer be considered a marginal note in the history of cinema, an ephemeral and exotic presence: he was a pioneer, a leading figure of the early days of cinema and the first filmmaker of the African continent. Il Cinema Ritrovato is set to reveal, over the next few years, the extent and articulations of his legacy. We begin with a first selection of restorations – actuality films and newsreels – from the original negatives preserved by Gaumont Pathé Archives and a spectacular find from La Cinémathèque française. 
Curated by Mariann Lewinsky and Cecilia Cenciarelli

Sometimes fate acts in unfathomable ways. Random findings in different places may end up shedding light on a specific subject, as though from on high. Between 2022 and 2023, Cineteca di Bologna, La Cinémathèque française and Gosfil’mofond of Russia, each of them individually, made several astonishing rediscoveries and carried out restorations of films featuring Diana Karenne, Ileana Leonidoff, Helena Makowska, who were among the main Russian actresses active in Italian silent cinema. Up until now, time cruelly denied any opportunity to appreciate the talents and beauty of many of these great performers – almost nothing seemed to survive. The programme will include three newly found films with Diana Karenne (including The Two Sisters’ Tragedy, a short 1914 melodrama that she also wrote), the brand-new restoration of Anton Giulio Bragaglia’s Thaïs, two films with Berta Nelson (courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum) and La tartaruga with Helena Makowska, rediscovered and preserved by the Cineteca di Bologna.
Curated by Mariann Lewinsky and Tamara Shvediuk