Trieste Science+Fiction Festival

Trieste Science+Fiction Festival was founded in 2000 under the name of Science plus Fiction by the Research and Experimentation Centre La Cappella Underground with the ambitious purpose of re-launching the Festival Internazionale del film di fantascienza (International Science Fiction Film Festival), which had been held in the northern Italian city of Trieste in the years 1963–1982.

It is a multidisciplinary event devoted to the realms of the “fantastic”, to experimental languages and new technologies in cinema, television and the visual arts. With a program rich in screenings, retrospectives, tributes, conferences and meetings with renown international and national professionals, it aims to explore the whole range of the science fiction world, from cinema to comics, from literature to stage performances.

Todd Brown describes it as “not just one of the world’s leading science fiction festivals”, but “one of the finest genre events in the world regardless of the genre in question”,[1] while Dan Jolin lists it as one of the “14 captivating film festivals in Europe you won’t want to miss”.[2]

Trieste Science+Fiction Festival annually awards the Asteroide to the best international feature film in competition. Moreover, in cooperation with the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation – that the festival joined in 2005 – it awards the Méliès d’argent (Silver Méliès) to the best European feature and short films in competition.