Il Cinema Ritrovato: A Bologna Festival Guide

By The Travel Fieldbook October 4, 2026 October 7, 2026

Il Cinema Ritrovato takes place in Piazza Maggiore, with festival events held in front of San Petronio Basilica. (Armin Kleiner · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Edited)

Il Cinema Ritrovato brings restored films and cinema history to the big screen in Bologna. Organised by the Cineteca di Bologna, it draws film enthusiasts to an organiser-set June festival, with indoor screenings by day and outdoor films after dark. You can make it a screening-led stay or simply join an evening in Piazza Maggiore.

Choose Piazza Maggiore for a single outdoor evening. Choose a festival pass for the indoor programme. The difference matters when you plan your days: a run of cinema screenings needs seat reservations and breaks, while an evening film leaves the daytime free for Bologna.

Festival dates and the programme

When: June; dates set by the organiser
Main festival: Usually nine days
Piazza Maggiore: Free public viewing
Indoor festival admission: Festival Pass (accreditation); some special events excluded
Screening reservations: Staged releases before the main festival

Choose films from the official screening programme and catalogue on the Il Cinema Ritrovato festival website. The programme gives individual screening times, so use it to build your cinema days. The catalogue helps you look beyond familiar titles to restorations and discoveries.

The compact main festival sits within a wider screening season. The Extended programme surrounds it, while Bologna’s summer outdoor cinema continues beyond the festival itself. Keep that distinction in mind if you want a full festival stay rather than a visit centred on evening films.

Once you have chosen your films, arrange the reservations around the staged releases: later screening groups and remaining seats become available separately. Reserve your must-see choices first, leaving gaps for meals and changing cinemas.

Outdoor screenings and indoor cinemas

Programme	Festival-day pattern	Time	Venue
Indoor screenings	Daily	09:00–12:00; 12:00–15:00; 15:00–18:00; 18:00–21:00; 21:00–24:00	Festival cinemas
Restored classics	Regular afternoon screenings	Afternoon	Cinema Modernissimo
Outdoor films	Every evening	Usually 21:45	Piazza Maggiore
Carbon-arc screenings	Selected evenings	Usually 22:00	Piazzetta Pier Paolo Pasolini

The indoor programme spans The Cinephiles’ Heaven, The Time Machine and The Space Machine, bringing together restored films, classics and archive discoveries. Public conversations and cinema lectures give you another way into the films alongside screenings. The table’s indoor bands organise the programme, but they are not the opening hours of each cinema.

Give an unfamiliar restoration a place beside your must-see classic. The festival’s focus makes it worth choosing beyond a favourite director: an archive discovery can introduce a film you would otherwise have little chance to see on a cinema screen. A conversation or lecture can then give that screening more context, rather than making your day a succession of films with no pause to consider them.

Piazza Maggiore is the choice for a large outdoor screening shared with the city. Its festival evenings also belong to Sotto le stelle del Cinema, meaning Cinema under the Stars, the wider summer screening season. For silent films, live accompaniment may come from a pianist, a small ensemble or a large orchestra: the music is part of the event, not simply a soundtrack played before the film.

Name: Piazza Maggiore
Location: Piazza Maggiore, Bologna Maps
Essential fact: Bologna’s main square, in the historic centre.

Cinema Modernissimo pairs restored classics in the afternoon with the nearby square’s evening programme. Prioritise Modernissimo if you want an indoor film without moving far from Piazza Maggiore. The two venues are close together, making this a useful pairing when you also want time for dinner before the outdoor screening.

Name: Cinema Modernissimo
Location: Piazza Re Enzo, Bologna Maps
Site: cinetecadibologna.it
Hours: Mon–Tue 09:30–22:30; Wed 09:30–10:30; Thu–Sun 09:30–22:30
Essential fact: A cinema beneath Palazzo Ronzani beside Piazza Re Enzo in central Bologna.

Piazzetta Pier Paolo Pasolini lies northwest of Piazza Maggiore and Modernissimo. Its carbon-arc screenings make the projection process itself a reason to go: an older form of film projection is part of the presentation. These selected evenings offer a different experience from the square’s nightly screenings, and their access arrangements need a separate decision when you choose your films.

Name: Piazzetta Pier Paolo Pasolini
Location: Via Azzo Gardino 65, Bologna Maps
Essential fact: A small square beside the Cineteca di Bologna in the historic centre.

An old film projector set up for an evening silent-film screening in Piazzetta Pier Paolo Pasolini during Il Cinema Ritrovato. — A projector ready for an evening screening in Piazzetta Pier Paolo Pasolini during Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna.
*Sundance Kid · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Edited*

Festival passes and seat reservations

A pass opens the indoor programme, but reserve each screening separately. After buying it, use the emailed login credentials to enter the booking platform. You can reserve one seat per screening and cannot book overlapping time slots. An indoor reservation guarantees a seat for that film.

Regular pass: budget around €150 at full price.
Concessions: around €80 for over-65s; around €55 for Bologna residents, university students, Cineteca card holders and Card Cultura holders.
Young pass: around €25 for ages 13–19.
Kids pass: around €10 for a child aged up to 12 and up to two accompanying adults, for Kids screenings and workshops, subject to availability.
Supporter passes: around €250–€280 for the Luchino Visconti category or €500–€550 for the Barbara Stanwyck category, with the lower prices applying to early purchases.

Earlier purchases can bring reduced rates, while purchases at festival venues may carry a small surcharge. The Extended screenings before and after the main festival admit the public with individual-event tickets; passholders can attend by reservation.

Piazza Maggiore’s reserved section is for passholders, with online reservations subject to availability and no additional reservation charge. A pass is useful here if you want access to that section rather than general public viewing.

Do not treat Piazzetta Pasolini as the same public-viewing option as Piazza Maggiore. Its arrangements have varied between free admission with advance booking recommended and passholder-only access, with one reserved seat per screening subject to availability. Use the participation programme on the Il Cinema Ritrovato festival website to select the applicable arrangement when planning that evening.

Rooms, meals and screening breaks

Choose your room around the cinemas you will use most. Piazza Maggiore and Cinema Modernissimo work well as a pair, while Piazzetta Pasolini lies northwest of them. A room convenient for the daytime programme can matter more than one beside your final evening film.

The festival points visitors to Bologna Welcome for accommodation and offers passholder arrangements with partner hotels. Book your room early to benefit from discounted hotel rates. As a planning estimate, allow roughly €100–€200 per night for a mid-range double room, with central locations and busy festival nights pushing costs higher.

Leave a lunch gap between indoor screenings and eat dinner before an outdoor film. Budget roughly €15–€25 per person for a simple pasta meal, or €25–€40 for a fuller restaurant meal with a drink. Tagliatelle al ragù, ribbon pasta with meat sauce, and tortellini in brodo, filled pasta in broth, give you straightforward local choices. Allow time to sit down rather than squeezing a meal into a venue change.

If you prefer an outdoor evening to full days in cinemas, pair it with two days of sightseeing in Bologna, leaving dinner and the film as the evening’s focus.

Crowds, weather and getting around

Piazza Maggiore’s major evening screenings and closing night usually draw the heaviest crowds. Arrive before the reserved-area cutoff if you want to protect priority access. A reservation and arriving at the right time are separate parts of attending the evening.

Cinema Modernissimo is a rain alternative only when the individual outdoor programme names it. That arrangement applies to selected screenings, not every outdoor film. When choosing an evening, note whether its programme includes this indoor alternative.

The organiser announces a free passholder festival shuttle between the Lumière cinemas and Cinema Modernissimo, with Cinema Arlecchino and Cinema Jolly as intermediate stops. It offers a way to change venues within a screening-led day. Leave a gap between films rather than filling every slot.

Plan your return to your accommodation around the film you choose, especially after an outdoor evening. Keep the end of the day flexible enough for leaving a crowded screening area, rather than treating the advertised start as the only time that matters.

Sources & fact-checking

Checks against the sources below cover: services, fares and charges, and opening hours.