CinemArcord 2026, the cinema of the past is living matter

For two days Daste Bergamo gathered a slice of that cinema that normally survives in collectors' archives and spectators' memories. Last September 12 and 13, the seventh edition of CinemArcord brought posters, playbills, original artifacts, Home Video, soundtracks, books, and memorabilia to the city, alongside a program of meetings with actors, directors, musicians, and authors.

The exhibition-market remains the heart of the event, but it's difficult to consider it merely a collecting fair. The program built by the organizers brought together personalities from very different eras and territories of Italian cinema.

Among the most anticipated names was Orchidea De Santis, who presented her autobiography Orchidea De Santis… e non è un nome d'arte, created with Antonio Tentori. A protagonist of a long season of Italian cinema between the sixties and seventies, the actress brought a direct testimony of that world to Bergamo. Many queued for the book signing.

Posters, books, gadgets, soundtracks and collectible films

Another event particularly linked to genre cinema featured Cinzia Monreale at the Rustblade Records space, who spoke for the presentation of the new Home Video edition of Joe D'Amato's Buio Omega, a film in which she had starred. Here the queue for an autograph broke the record for this two-day cinephile event.

The program then traversed popular comedy with Urs Althaus, Aristoteles from L'allenatore nel pallone, and a Sunday tribute to Fantozzi. An opportunity for cinema and music to meet: the presentation of the book Fantozzi, un mito italiano was joined by that of the vinyl of Il secondo tragico Fantozzi, with Franco Bixio, Fabio Frizzi, and Vince Tempera, authors of the soundtrack.

The relationship between cinema and music was also present, entrusted to the band Calibro 35, protagonists of a meeting on film scores and their relationship with cinematic imagery. Finally, the event shone a spotlight on Ciro Ippolito, author and protagonist of Arrapaho, screened at the conclusion of the event in the Lo Schermo Bianco hall.

CinemArcord thus continues to move on a particular ground: on one side the objects that cinema has left behind, on the other the people who built that history. Posters, vinyls, and physical media therefore do not just become collector's items, but a starting point for circulating stories and memories. In Bergamo, cinema has thus come back to life even off-screen, through those who made it and those who continue to preserve its traces.