The 23rd edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato – Blu-ray & DVD Awards is promoted by Cineteca di Bologna in the framework of Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival. It’s a competition that, in line with the festival spirit, celebrates old movies, restorations and rediscovers, in their home video formats. The award aims to encourage and give visibility to quality home entertainment Dvd and Blu-Ray from around the world.
The awards are divided into five categories: Best Dvd/Blu-ray (The Peter Von Bagh Award), Best Single Release, Best Special Features (bonus), Best Rediscovery of a Forgotten Film, Best Series/Best Box.
how to take part
The competition is open to DVDs and Blu-rays released between February 2025 and March 2026 of critically acclaimed films made before 1996 (30 years ago).
You can enter the competition by submitting up to 5 titles of your latest releases. Your DVDs and Blu-rays must reach Bologna no later than March 20th, 2026.
In order to enable all jury members to assess each shortlisted edition into detail, we ask all finalists to send us five additional copies per title. All copies should reach Bologna no later than 10th May 2026.
The awards ceremony will take place during Il Cinema Ritrovato (20th-28th June 2026). The event is open to the public.
Film critic for “Corriere della Sera” since 1989, he is also author of the film dictionary series il Mereghetti since 1993. He has worked as a consultant for the Venice Film Festival as well as for RadioTre and Raitre. Mereghetti has also published numerous monographs on Orson Welles, Arthur Penn, Marco Ferreri, Bertrand Tavernier and Jacques Rivette.
Vice-director of Gemona’s Cineteca del Friuli, he writes for “Positif”, “International Film Guide”, “Urania”, Storia del cinema Einaudi, Dictionnaire du cinéma asiatique, and Cinemazero among others, and he has published numerous studies on Marco Tullio Giordana, Tinto Brass, Ermanno Olmi, Pupi Avati, Gianni Amelio, Dante Spinotti.
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, film archivist and restorer. He is the founder of Film Heritage Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of India’s cinematic heritage. Shivendra was elected to the Executive Committee of FIAF in 2017.
Philippe Garnier is a journalist, author and translator. He’s been a Libération columnist since 1982, as well as the Hollywood interviewer of the French TV show “Cinéma-Cinémas”. His various books as author include Honni Soit Qui Malibu and Caractères, moindres lumières à Hollywood.
Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance writer, critic and film historian, specialising in silent and classic cinema as well as women’s film history. She contributes regularly to publications including Sight & Sound and the Guardian as well as appearing on Radio 4.
Economist (retired), Miguel Marías is a film critic and author of books on movie directors (including Manuel Mur Oti, Leo McCarey, Raúl Ruiz). He has translated into Spanish Introduction à une vraie histoire du cinema, 5 screenplays by Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol (Michael Walker & Robin Wood) and Fritz Lang in America (Peter Bogdanovich).
