Roland Sejko unveiled the first images of Girato a Cinecittà (Shot at Cinecittà) at the Italian Pavilion of the Cannes Film Festival on May 16 2026, marking the launch of a documentary that in 2027 will celebrate 90 years of Italy’s most famous film studios.
Founded in Rome in 1937, Cinecittà has produced more than 3,000 films and won 50 Academy Awards through titles shot inside its walls. Sejko, who won a David di Donatello, Italy’s top national film award, for Anija-La nave (Anija-The ship), will direct the new production for Luce Cinecittà, the state-owned company that runs the studios and the national film archive.
“Cinecittà is a patrimony of humanity and of humanity itself,” said Antonio Saccone, president of Cinecittà. “It has accompanied the growth and transformations of our democracy, it is a mirror of the country, and it has given imagination to the whole world.”
Manuela Cacciamani, chief executive officer of Cinecittà, called the project a long-held ambition. “Cinecittà has no equal on the planet. It is a word known by everyone in every country,” she said. “It is the workplace of the great geniuses of cinematic craftsmanship. The masters of technique.”
The documentary will combine new footage, archive material and testimonies from directors, actors, producers and crew who have worked at the studios. Sejko described Cinecittà as a city in its own right, with walls, avenues, pine trees, workshops and inhabitants both famous and anonymous. “At almost 90 years from its foundation, Cinecittà is not just a complex of sound stages but a real city,” Sejko said. “Like real cities, Cinecittà has had a founding, a growth, seasons of splendour, crises, transformations and continual reconstructions.”
Across nine decades the studios have witnessed fascism, war, bombings, strikes and protests, alongside the rise of neorealismo (neorealism, the post-war movement of socially grounded Italian cinema) and the international productions that defined the era. They have hosted Roberto Rossellini, Federico Fellini and Sergio Leone, and later Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott and Mel Gibson. Today the lot hosts the video-game adaptation Assassin’s Creed alongside renewed sound stages.
A film for a global audience
The production team includes Luca Onorati on editing, Daniele Massaccesi as director of photography, Riccardo Giagni on original music and Maura Cosenza as executive producer. The aim of the film is to ensure the “restitution” of the Cinecittà dream to contemporary audiences, as well as offering up a “thank you to everyone in the world who loves Cinecittà,” Cacciamani said.
