The film festival Endorfine Rosa Shocking returns with its ninth edition, a gathering dedicated to cinema, sport and the journeys of women capable of crossing geographical, cultural and emotional borders. The new edition of the festival, conceived and curated by Laura Aimone, will take place from September 29 to October 4, 2026 at the Candiani Cultural Center in Mestre. The slogan chosen for 2026, “Veleggiando tra iceberg … con lo sguardo rivolto dentro,” evokes a symbolic and real journey between extreme territories, internal challenges and unexplored horizons. A powerful image that runs through the entire festival program: women facing water, ice, mountains, the body, competition and above all themselves, turning every obstacle into an opportunity for growth and awareness.
Endorfine Rosa Shocking: the program for the ninth edition
The program of the ninth edition offers an intense international cinematic journey comprising works of fiction, documentaries and animations from Europe, the Middle East and North America, with stories of sport, resilience, relationships and self-determination. To open the festival, on Tuesday 29 September 2026, will be the documentary Þetta reddast by Valentin Rapp, dedicated to climber Tamara Lunger and to the journey undertaken with her father through the Icelandic landscapes: an intimate tale about self-discovery and the acceptance of life’s unpredictability. Next, Big Water Theory by Emile Dominè will take the audience to the Rondu Gorge of the Indus River in Pakistan, among the Karakoram mountains, alongside Nouria Newman, the French kayak champion, protagonist of a remarkable all-female sporting feat. On Wednesday 30 September the festival will explore the relationship between water, body and identity with the animated short Plunge by Ellie Land and with the Canadian film Nadia, Butterfly by Pascale Plant, a powerful portrait of a young Olympic swimmer grappling with the difficult transition beyond competitive athletic life.
The Friday evening of 2 October will be devoted to mountains, climbing and adventure, in homage to the festival’s new support from the Giovane Montagna of Mestre and Mestre Montagne. On the Blunt End by Joseph Walker will tell the delicate bond between two sisters and the English climbing community, while Via Sedna by Ramona Waldner and Alexander Brugger will guide the audience among the Arctic and Greenland ice, following a female-only sailing and mountaineering expedition: a work that perfectly embodies the theme “Veleggiando tra iceberg…” and from which the symbol photo of this year’s edition is drawn. Saturday 3 October opens up space for the dreams and challenges of adolescence and social inclusion with Ice Break by Elvira Dulskaia, dedicated to a young hockey player, and with Cricket Dreams by Jamillah van der Hulst, a moving documentary about young former street children from Delhi who are the protagonists of the Street Child Cricket World Cup in Chennai, India. The festival’s closing, Sunday 4 October, will be entrusted to two works that celebrate the strength and determination of women. Amplified by Dina Naser will recount the story of a young karateka with a hearing impairment who confronts trauma and the loss of a safe space, while The March of the Amazons by Borislav Kolev will offer an epic and intimate portrait of four extraordinary Bulgarian athletes — across boxing, wrestling, martial arts and football — contemporary symbols of emancipation and female leadership. The Awards Ceremony of the festival will take place on 4 October at 17:00.
Once again, with its ninth edition, Endorfine Rosa Shocking remains deeply true to its DNA and confirms itself as a meeting place for cinema, women and sport, but above all as a space for reflection on the transformations of contemporary female identity. Through stories from around the world, the festival invites the audience to navigate between fragility and courage, between storms and harbors, keeping an open gaze toward new possibilities. According to Laura Aimone, founder and artistic director of Endorfine Rosa Shocking, “Veleggiando tra iceberg … con lo sguardo rivolto dentro, the slogan of this edition of the Festival, is the metaphor of a complex time, in which cinema continues to guide us toward new routes capable of uniting emotion, awareness and change. I am very happy and grateful to celebrate the ninth birthday of Endorfine with a program so rich and full of important insights and intimate reflections.”
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