The selection of Italian films at the 24th Bansko Mountain & Adventure Film Festival, a film festival dedicated to winter and adventure sports, was a resounding success.
Mountaineers Stefano Ragazzo and Matteo Della Bordella, a member of the renowned Ragni di Lecco mountaineering group, introduced the screening of the documentaries “Eternal Solo” by Andrea Cossu and “Odyssea Borealis” by Alessandro Beltrame, which focus on their sporting exploits.
The Italian participation in the Festival was further enriched by the selection of five other documentaries dedicated to the theme of mountains: “Cinquanta” by Paolo Vinati, “Gigio in Nespello” by Alberto Valtellina, “The Red Face Zone” by Marco Tribelhorn, “Beyond” by Alex Bellini, and “Altrove” by Gabriele Canu.
Crowning Italy’s participation, coordinated by the Italian Cultural Institute in Sofia and the local Embassy, Ambassador Marcello Apicella‘s speech leveraged the sporting context to present the upcoming Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, illustrating the program and emphasizing its message of peace, inclusion, and cooperation.
Italy and Bulgaria are also preparing to jointly organize the start of the Giro d’Italia in 2026, showing the excellent relations between the two countries.
As a completion to the program, the panel exhibition entitled “Air, Water, Earth, Fire” by Italian artist Adriana Pignatelli, dedicated to Southern Italy’s volcanic arc (Vesuvius, Etna, Campi Flegrei, and the Aeolian Islands)y, was inaugurated in Bansko’s main square.
