Violenza di generecinemaorientamenti affettivi e comunità lgbtiq+

From cinema to action: the mix that transforms the city

For almost forty years, Milan’s MiX Festival has been a landmark for queer culture in Italy. Founded in 1986 through a collaboration among local community organizations, it has grown, evolved, and kept pace with the transformations of the LGBTQ+ community, bringing new stories and perspectives to the big screen. Today, it is much more than a film festival: it is a creative laboratory that crosses languages, spaces, and generations, highlighting the collective dimension of cultural activism. We discussed this with Lara Vespari and Federico Manzionna, the artistic directors of the MiX Festival and curators of its 39th edition, held in September 2025

By Elisa Belotti

05 Dec 2025

How was the MiX Festival born, and what were the main steps that led it to become a point of reference for queer culture in Italy and beyond?
Federico Manzionna: The MiX Festival was founded in 1986 thanks to the collaboration of CIG Arcigay Milano, Altro Martedì, Babilonia, and ASA. It originally took the name Uno Sguardo Diverso (“A Different Gaze”), and its first edition aimed to highlight independent cinema, gathering the demands for recognition and affirmation of the entire LGBTQ+ community, anticipating its trends and promoting its political and social empowerment. Over the years it underwent several changes and transformations, joining the MiX Festival network in 2005 and becoming independent from CIG Arcigay in 2012 with the creation of the association MIX MILANO APS. In 2021, it reached its current identity as the MiX International Festival of LGBTQ+ Cinema and Queer Culture.

What criteria guide the selection of films and other artistic expressions presented during the festival?
Lara Vespari: The selection process begins by observing society, the current reality of our country, and what is happening globally, in order to understand which issues we want to bring to the festival. As society changes, so does the need to represent different realities, and so does the way each of these realities should be portrayed. This year we worked along a line that keeps queer representation as an underlying thread, looking for titles that highlight the stories being told regardless of the characters’ gender identity or sexual orientation. The need for representation is still strong, but we must detach ourselves from clichés and stereotypes. This criterion also applies to the festival’s cultural events: this year, in line with our claim ACTION, we wanted to encourage people to act rather than remain mere spectators. For this reason, we expanded the workshop section, allowing participants to move from watching to taking part.

The MiX has been active since the late ’80s. What cultural and social impact has it had on the city, and what impact does it continue to have?
Federico Manzionna: Throughout its journey, the MiX has increasingly sought to connect with the city where it was born, exploring different venues and eventually finding a great and important home at the Piccolo Teatro Strehler. It has grown culturally while keeping cinema at its core, but has also included talks, live music, and workshops in its program. In recent years we have worked to ensure that the MiX has a presence in Milan not only during the four days of the festival, but throughout the whole year. This has led to several meaningful collaborations, such as with Fondazione Prada’s Cinema Godard, with AriaAnteo, and with the Institut français Milano.

What are the current and future challenges for the MiX Festival in a cultural and political landscape that is constantly changing, especially regarding the representation and rights of LGBTQ+ people?
Lara Vespari: The global political climate has undoubtedly had a significant impact even on a small reality like the MiX. The challenge ahead—and what we hope for—is to eventually be able to create a festival whose driving force is no longer the struggle for rights, but the celebration of art created by queer artists. A space where the word representation can shed the weight of struggle, suffering, and anger, and once again simply become a synonym for storytelling.