Three acclaimed Italian films are heading to Northeast Ohio screens this month as the Cleveland Italian Film Festival marks its 20th year, spreading a comedy, a drama and a romance across three consecutive Thursday nights from Sept. 10 through Sept. 24. Screenings begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland Heights and Atlas Cinemas Great Lakes in Mentor, with tickets running $13 plus fees and required in advance through Eventbrite.
The festival was launched in 2006 by Joyce Mariani, according to Cleveland.com, whose reporter Joey Morona detailed this year's full slate. Mariani's connection to Italian culture in Cleveland runs deeper than the festival itself: after living and studying in Rome and Florence, she founded the Italian Cultural Garden Foundation in 2007 and led a $1.5 million restoration of the historic Italian Cultural Garden monument in Rockefeller Park, according to the Cleveland International Hall of Fame. That garden, dedicated in 1934, still holds a stone column gifted from the ancient Roman Forum, according to Cleveland Historical.
Opening Night: A Shepherd Versus a Megaresort
The festival opens Sept. 10 at the Cedar Lee Theatre with La Vita Va Cosi! (Life Goes Like This!), a 2025 comedy directed by Riccardo Milani. The film follows a shepherd who clashes with a real estate developer seeking to turn part of southern Sardinia into a megaresort, per the same Cleveland.com report.
The Cedar Lee Theatre itself carries plenty of history for local moviegoers. Opened on Christmas Day in 1925 and designed by local architect Nicola Petti as a 1,100-seat single-screen house, the theater expanded into a six-screen art-house multiplex by 1994, according to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. It also served as the founding host venue for the Cleveland International Film Festival when that event launched in 1977, remaining its primary home until 1991, the encyclopedia notes.
A Doctor Confronts Hatred, Then Two Couples Fall in and out of Love
The following Thursday, Sept. 17, shifts the mood with Non Odiare (Do Not Hate), a 2020 drama starring Alessandro Gassmann that screens at Atlas Cinemas Great Lakes in Mentor. The film follows a doctor forced to confront his own capacity for hatred after encountering a neo-Nazi, the article notes. Director Mauro Mancini's drama earned three David di Donatello nominations in 2021, including a nod for Best New Director, and actress Sara Serraiocco won a Nastro d'Argento for Best Supporting Actress for her role in it, according to a Wikipedia summary of the film's accolades.
The festival closes Sept. 24 back at Atlas Cinemas Great Lakes with Manuale d'Amore (Manual of Love), a romantic comedy set against Rome and Tuscany that follows four couples through different stages of love, per the Cleveland.com account. Italian comedy star Carlo Verdone stars in the film, which racked up 12 David di Donatello nominations and won two awards upon its 2005 release, including Best Supporting Actor for Verdone, according to the Italian film database Cinematografo.
A Michelin-Starred Sardinian Send-Off
The night before the closing film, on Sept. 23, the festival hosts a VIP dinner at Dante Next Door in Tremont, featuring a five-course Sardinian-inspired meal prepared by chef Dante Boccuzzi. Tickets run $140 including gratuity, tax and wine pairings, and reservations must be made by calling 440-456-8117. Boccuzzi previously earned a Michelin Star while serving as executive chef at Aureole in New York City, according to a biography posted on Dante Boccuzzi Restaurants.
All three screenings will be presented in Italian with English subtitles, keeping with the festival's tradition of showcasing films as they were made rather than dubbed for American audiences. Italy has won more Best International Feature Film Oscars than any other country, a record that stands at 14 wins, including three honorary awards, and 33 total nominations, according to Wikipedia.
Why the Thursday-Only Format Works
Rather than cramming the lineup into a single weekend, Mariani built the festival around single Thursday night screenings spread across separate weeks — a structure that has reliably produced sold-out auditoriums and ticket waiting lists, according to Ohio Goes to the Movies. That pacing has helped turn the event into a fixture for Cuyahoga County's Italian-American community, which represents roughly 8.7% of the county's population, or more than 110,000 residents, according to Statistical Atlas data.
Two decades in, the festival remains part of a broader civic effort tied to Mariani's work preserving Italian heritage sites across Cleveland, extending well beyond the screen and into the restored monuments of Rockefeller Park. Hoodline previously covered the festival's 17th edition, when it similarly unfolded over three Thursdays under Mariani's direction.
