#06 TFI Specials | A summer of open-air cinema in Torino
Agosto 2025
Torino's summer season was enlivened by a number of open-air theatres located in various locations around the city, which offered dedicated spaces for the entire citizenry to meet. A dense programme of titles, including last season's big hits and timeless movies, sold out almost every night in June and July: we dedicate the sixth appointment of the TFI Specials to the summer arenas, which every year enrich Torino's cultural programme to make the city a true open-air cinema.
Talking about their projects are Massimo Garbi for the Cineteatro Monterosa in Barriera di Milano, Cristina Voghera of the CineTeatro Baretti in San Salvario, Michele Dettoni of the Cinema Teatro Agnelli in Mirafiori, Vittorio Sclaverani for the Associazione Museo Nazionale del Cinema (AMNC) and Fulvio Paganin for Distretto Cinema. These are independent summer theatres that curate their own single-screen programming – with the exception of AMNC's project, which for the summer of 2025 spread over no less than twelve spaces. Yet, the collaboration between the theatres is always strongly present, laying the essential foundations for the construction of a variegated proposal, which creates a deliberately distributed and multiplied result.
This synergy and its strength emerge at every moment: from the stories of the birth of the arenas to the construction of the programming, passing through the audience's objectives and the spectators' responses. The individuality typical of Torino's neighbourhoods is thus preserved, making them a meeting space born from the community that, at the same time, is enhanced, strengthened and enlarged.
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Is there a history of Torino's summer arenas?
Massimo Garbi, Cineteatro Monterosa: The history of the Monterosa is short-lived: we started in 2020, the famous year of Covid, in collaboration with Associazione Nazionale Museo del Cinema. Città di Torino had launched a proposal to some associations to link up with cinemas to create summer arenas. Two small arenas (the one at Monterosa and the one at CineTeatro Baretti) and two large arenas (one at Palazzo Reale and one at Castello del Valentino) were created. We thus inaugurated a tradition that has not stopped since, because every summer since then we have always had the arena, even though we have not won the tender for the last two years – because people have been asking for it. In fact, I have found photographs dating back to 1951 of such an experience: there was a summer arena in the courtyards, pending the construction of the current cinema and theatre.
Vittorio Sclaverani, Associaizone Nazionale Museo del Cinema: As far as Torino and summer cultural activities are concerned, the great model to look up to is the Punti Verdi tradition initiated by councillor Giorgio Balmas, which was created to go out and revive public space in a very complex period such as the leaden years. I would also cite a model that no longer exists, but which we carry on with the work of the Associaizone Nazionale Museo del Cinema: the Cinema in Strada project of the I 313 Association. For me it was an incredible training experience, which combined two very interesting things to which we are trying to give continuity, namely work in the suburbs, and work with communities in the area, and in particular foreign communities.
So there is an almost social link between the historical moment and the development of a gathering place such as the open-air cinema in the summertime, is there not?
Cristina Voghera, CineTeatro Baretti: Absolutely. Certainly for us at Baretti the Punti Verdi have been an important stimulus and role model. Our arena has been alive for 15 years, we are in our teens – with all the difficulties involved. There has been a desire to keep cinema alive at a time when people hardly ever go to the cinema, but they still want to enjoy the experience. Our proximity to the Casa del Quartiere in San Salvario, this fantastic courtyard that welcomes us in a wonderful way, has contributed to the conditions for a natural evolution, which also came to us as a request from the public. I would add that there have been many arenas over the years: in my opinion they have all worked well, also because the proposal has never overlapped. From this point of view, the synergy of everyone's work served so that each one had its own identity and they all worked.
Fulvio Paganin, Distretto Cinema: At one point there was a gap between the past and the present, or our near past. When we started the arena at the Palazzo Reale with Distretto Cinema, it was a time when – I remember, as a child or a teenager, that there were summer events, even music events, which then remained, but not as important. When we started talking a little bit with the public authorities about doing something outdoors, some people were amazed. They said, “But this stuff here is no longer used, it's a thing of the past”. But since the first edition there has been a very positive response from the public: it means that people really want to enjoy the outdoors, to enjoy the city.
Michele Dettoni, Cinema Teatro Agnelli: For us the arena was a stimulus to start again after the Covid period. After the experience of the first year, we then signed a partnership with the Casa del Parco in via Panetti in Mirafiori, to take care of the artistic direction of the summer arena as part of the broad programme of activities that various organisations together under the Casa del Parco propose during the summer. In the last two years it has certainly been a major aggregation point given the very positive response from the public. It should not be forgotten that ministerial initiatives to encourage audiences to come to the cinema in summer have certainly also helped.
Open-air cinema in 1951 during the construction of the new theatre; the building behind the screen is the one occupied by the old theatre. Michele Rua Oratory Archive
What is your audience today? Do you speak to a specific neighbourhood target group, or is the summer arena also aimed at the whole city?
CV: We try to speak to neighbouring towns and municipalities. In our audience, we are sure to have people who also come from outside of Torino – from Bassa Valsusa, from Rivoli, from Pinerolo... they come to see the film and then go home. We interface with an audience that is as generalist as possible: our programming in the summer repeats the format of Portofranco, the festival that we organise more for cinephiles, lightening it in terms of topics – without prejudice to the fact that in any case every film must be able to tell us something. Since with Covid the Case di Quartiere had become food distribution outposts, a network was established that continues to assist people in need: now there is a project called “Culture Around the Corner”, and we provide free tickets to give those in need evenings of entertainment. Since last year, we have been continuing the “suspended ticket” project that we have in collaboration with the ANPI, done for university students away from home who have chosen Torino as the city for their studies. Among their many expenses, they may forgo a cinema ticket because they prefer to go for a drink. So we try to bring them to the cinema.
MG: For us too, the audience is large – I get this from online sales. I see where people buy from, so I see that people move around different areas of the city, they also come from areas close to Barriera like San Mauro Torinese and Settimo Torinese. Many people approach Barriera di Milano thanks to this initiative, which also helps to dispel a prejudice. There are people who come and say, “I didn't know there was such a nice thing here!” And I reply, “Now you know! Leave us your e-mail address, we'll put it in the database, and we'll tell you about he other nice things that we have here”.
FP: I think movement is normal, the city attracts. At the same time, having very different schedules, I imagine an audience that goes around because there are different things, and goes where there is something of interest. I also think that being able to involve people in the neighbourhood and make them feel that something that is a little bit yours is also something that belongs to everyone is important, especially in a city like Torino that is very different from one area to another. I think it's something we can work on more.
VS: As the Associaizone Nazionale Museo del Cinema, we have been organising open-air screenings for at least fifteen years. The programme has been structured in “un'Estate al Cinema” since the Association turned 60 in 2013, and from the beginning we have been working in a polycentric way, especially in the suburbs. This year's project took place in twelve different spaces, each with its own audience. One thing we have noticed in recent years that we have invested a lot in is the educational part: we offer not only free screenings that are accessible to all citizens, but also free training sessions for young filmmakers in the area. This is one of the points of contact with Film Commission Torino Piemonte, thanks to which we manage to reach many young professionals. This summer, we were able to do this thanks to the SIAE's Enigma Residente call.
MD: I agree with my colleagues, we also have a good audience movement. We certainly talk to an audience that is as generalist as possible: our programming in the summer reproposes some of the season's successes, or some titles that we were not able to programme during the regular programming. The audience is somewhat different from that of the auditorium. For the past four years, the arena has been held at the Casa del Parco, only 3 kilometres away from the auditorium: a precise choice to decentralise open-air cinema in order to open up to the territory.
From a historical perspective, has the relationship with the audience changed over time? How?
CV: Understanding the audience has now really become like reading in a crystal ball – very difficult! Sometimes you do events that you wouldn't bet a single euro on and you have a full house, other times you do things you expect the best results from and you get nothing. What we try to do with the public is always to pamper them as much as possible: to be there, to meet them, to talk to them, to collect their feelings, their cues... but it is increasingly difficult to get people in the theater, indoors or outdoors. It used to be that all you had to do was put the poster outside and you'd find queues outside the cinema or the arena. Now, on the other hand, you almost have to collect them up one by one.
Is there a difference between summer and winter attendance?
MG: I see that during the summer period we often get a large part of the public that they don't normally see during the year, so it becomes a way of engaging them.
CV: I confirm, that's how it is for us too. Perhaps the fact of concentrating the events and not distributing them over a wider time span means that the numbers obviously increase.
MD: Definitely yes, I also confirm, there is a different movement, a different audience, despite the very small distance from the theater.
In your opinion, is the summer festival born in response to a community need, or on the contrary is it the community that creates meeting places by organising a summer arena?
VS: This is a very important issue for us. Our work in the suburbs began more or less at the time of the great economic crisis, a time when support for culture changed a lot. If there was more funding before, afterwards it contracted. Add to this the issue of the absence of cinemas in some of the city's neighbourhoods, particularly the suburbs – the Cinema Agnelli and the Monterosa are exceptions, but the latter is still the only cinema in one of Torino's most densely populated districts. With our work, we filled gaps that had been somewhat left behind in the city's strategic vision. In Mirafiori in particular – the first screening space at the Casa nel Parco – and at Cascina Roccafranca in the early '10s, our work was to bring our communicative, planning and cultural skills to try to restart or start up projects, which then became more and more autonomous. When you bring cinema into an informal space that is accessible to everyone, in a context where there is no cinema, where there hasn't been a cinema open for many years, this creates an incredible excitement on the part of the citizenry, and also a source of energy a return for our fundamental work.
MG: This year the slogan for our arena is “Barriera today: the neighbourhood becomes community”. It was born as part of the “Generations in Barriera” project, which involves several realities also very different from each other – the library, the bookshop, a sports centre, a school... On the one hand, people are now asking about the arena because this proposal has been appreciated; at the same time, it is also true that, with this form of collaboration between the various realities of the neighbourhood, it is the community that creates this space and in this space it finds itself.
FP: Community is a consequence of what you are doing. People – regardless of the summertime – are looking for the outdoor space, beyond what the content is. At the same time, however, you have to somehow cultivate an audience. The widespread programme that Vittorio does, that is, bringing people to the courtyard of Cottolengo or Mirafiori, that is not granted: somehow you have to get to the place, you have to intercept people, and this creates the community.
MD: I confirm what Massimo said. Even for us with this form of collaboration between the various realities of the neighbourhood, it is the community that creates this space and meets here. Our cinema is a historically recognised cultural stronghold in Mirafiori, and together with the Monterosa, as Salesian and Community theatres, it brings cinema to the suburbs along with the great challenge today of trying to survive in a very complex and very competitive city.
The individuality of the neighbourhoods is a very identifying characteristic of Torino, but it is also evident that a network is created, even though there is not a single promoter working in several parts of the city.
MG: Between Monterosa, Baretti, and Agnelli, since we are three community theatres, when we do the programming we talk to each other to create a calendar in synergy without overlapping. This gives people the chance to move around according to their own desires and their own film choices, maybe even in case there are repeated films – lost on one side, found on the other.
CV: This also extends to Vittorio, who in any case collaborates in planning the summer activities. Working in synergy is always the winning choice, there is no point in competing. It is impossible to talk to everyone, but this is where the distribution agencies come in, so there are both direct and indirect relationships.
Cinema on the Lingotto's Pista 500
How do you build the programme? Are there particular elements you pay attention to when choosing titles?
CV: For Portofranco, in May we establish a calendar of appointments, then I prepare an artistic proposal based on the past season, and finally we put them on the billboards, at the Casa del Quartiere and Baretti, on social networks, on the website, newsletters, with all our channels. After a month, we draw the conclusions: the most voted ones go on the programme. So it is the public that chooses what to see in the arena in the summer, and then responds well: we always sell out for our events – although it can depend on the weather. Guests are important, but they are not essential, whereas we always try to be attentive to local proposals, so of course it is easier to have guests.
MG: At Monterosa I try not to reintroduce titles that have already been used during the year, also to attract part of the audience that already follows us during the year. We try as much as possible to find the right mix of films that, while entertaining the audience, can say some interesting things. I agree that the presence of a guest is not the key element, people move on the choice of the title.
FP: Clearly the guest always gives you something, but it doesn't move the audience. Then, we often deal with dead people, so we don't have any big problems.
VS: Genre-wise, what works best in popular terms is comedy. Then, speaking of the dead, certainly the classics work well too. As far as choice is concerned – working with twelve different spaces, we have to deal with at least three times as many realities, starting with those that manage, and those that get involved: the choice is often participatory and shared, a bottom-up participation is activated. There is also a more “personal” proposal where we show independent films by young authors, and sometimes we show films that we have shown in theatres. One thing we care a lot about is that, working throughout the year on cultural projects of social inclusion, such as foster care, prisons, foreign communities, we make proposals for documentaries or films that deal with these issues, often accompanied either by the authors, or by in-depth voices, as well as more precise and critical interventions. Maybe it doesn't move the audience, unless there is the great guest, but in my opinion an in-depth study, especially with the authors or with the protagonists of the stories told on the screen, when it creates a contact with the audience, changes the relationship with the audience. The experience is different, watching a film accompanied by the author changes it radically, and in the long run it pays off.
MD: In the first editions, we had a precise request to programme mainly comedies: in recent years, thanks also to theme nights or local festivals, we have focused a lot on strong titles, with a content linked to the themes dealt with in the other evenings of summer activities. We have also managed to have guests, which is not taken for granted but always very much appreciated by the audience.
And what about festivals? Is this an element you take into account when choosing titles?
CV: For us, yes and no: we have a technical constraint which is given by the shape of the courtyard, which is narrow and long, and we have 200 seats. Those at the back can't read the subtitles, so we have ongoing relations with festivals, but more for in-theatre programming.
Across your programmes, you can clearly see the presence of films made with the support of Film Commission Torino Piemonte. What is the relationship with Piemonte-based authors and producers? Is there a strategic advantage in choosing locally made projects?
MG: We are very pleased when it is possible to include something filmed in Piemonte. For the screening of “Anywhere Anytime”, speaking of guests, in addition to director Milad Tangshir there was also FCTP Director Paolo Manera. These are also opportunities to tell the audience how a Film Commission works, what it means to ask for its support: it's a high-sounding name that makes you think maybe of funding, but there is a whole different movement underneath.
VS: For us too, all year round and especially in summer, having a relationship with authors and production companies in the area is fundamental. The Film Commission, us, the authors, the production houses – we are all part of the same system, and being able to create opportunities to meet and learn more becomes fundamental. It is part of the work of all of us to enhance the authors, especially independent ones, of the territory.
FP: I would add that the territory is not an obligation, of course, but those who, like us, are involved in promotion should particularly give space to those independent authors and independent productions, such as documentaries, which are struggling more and more. Our responsibility is also to give an extra chance to these more difficult products, to put them in contact with an audience, because then they have an audience.
Summer arena at Castello del Valentino, 2020
We have reached the end. A dream for summer 2026?
FP: To go on holiday. Because the arena is a death sentence!
Of course, you should go and see other people's arenas!
CV: You have to go to arenas by the sea!
VS: But if I can tell you a dream... it has recently been inaugurated a little square in Piazza Arbarello dedicated to Maria Adriana Prolo. It's a pedestrian space, it would be nice – maybe together! – to think about holding a screening there. 7 July is the anniversary of the foundation first of the Associazione Nazionale Museo del Cinema: maybe on 7 July 2026 we will be there. And then, more concretely: in the last two years, the Fondazione per la Cultura has not supported the Associazione Baretti's project in San Salvario at all, nor has it supported the project that we curated with Monterosa, and other realities in the area. After four years of great work, the Fondazione per la Cultura decided not to support this project for pennies on the dollar. I find it extremely short-sighted not to support accessible and free projects in a neighbourhood as complex as Barriera di Milano, so I hope for 2026/2027 that the Fondazione per la Cultura will return to invest in that neighbourhood.
CV: I agree with what Vittorio said – this is also my real dream, all jokes aside. We have some private sponsors who support us, which has reduced our festival over the last two years. Our dream for next summer is to develop a project that receives a minimum of support so that we can get to the end of the festival and say, good: we did it.