In Lucca the screen never remains just a screen. It leaves the rooms, invades the squares, occupies the buildings and transforms the historic center into a geography of the imagination. In the year of the sixtieth anniversary of Lucca Comics & Games, the Movie Area, curated by QMI, returns from 28 October to 1 November with a program that mixes cinema and serials, animation and horror, cult authors and global franchises, special screenings, panels and immersive experiences.
Among the protagonists of the edition is Sky, which brings to Lucca the second season of the Sky Original series North South West East - The legendary story of the 883, a new chapter in the story written by Sydney Sibilia after They Killed Spider-Man.
The story starts again in 1993. Max Pezzali and Mauro Repetto are now on the crest of the wave and 883's second album, Nord southwest est, accompanies that dizzying transformation that leads two boys from Pavia to become one of the most recognizable musical phenomena of the nineties.
The second season of North South West East – The legendary story of the 883, produced by Sky Studios and Greenland, debuts on 9 October exclusively on Sky and streaming only on NOW.
In Lucca the appointment is set for Friday 30 October, when the creator and director Sydney Sibilia will meet the public together with the protagonists Elia Nuzzolo, interpreter of Max Pezzali, and Matteo Oscar Giuggioli, in the role of Mauro Repetto. On this occasion, the fifth episode of the new season will be previewed. But the series will also leave the screen: in the center of Lucca, in Piazza San Francesco, Sky will set up a space entirely dedicated to the 883 universe. A temporary home for a story in which province, friendship, success and music continue to mix, while Max and Mauro's dream inevitably begins to change shape.
Among the other great serial universes present at the Movie Area there will be Disney+ with Percy Jackson and the Olympians. For the first time, protagonists Walker Scobell, Leah Sava' Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri will arrive at the festival, together with co-creator and executive producer Jonathan E. Steinberg and executive producer Dan Shotz.
During the panel, some clips from the third season will be previewed, expected on Disney+ from November 20th.
From Camp Half-Blood to Hogwarts the step, at least in Lucca, is short. HBO Max will in fact dedicate an entire pavilion to the new HBO Original series Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, arriving at Christmas 2026. Installations, photo opportunities and elements inspired by the series will accompany the public on the television return to Hogwarts.
For animation fans there will also be Adventure Time: Legendary Missions, the new series set in the Land of Ooo, with Finn, Jake and the other most loved characters. Among the planned initiatives, a treasure hunt, an immersive photocall and the presence of showrunner Nate Cash, protagonist of talks, screenings and copy-signing sessions.
Lucca will also become a hunting ground for Dexter Morgan. Paramount+ will present the second season of Dexter: Resurrection, out October 30, with a special screening preceded by a talk.
The serial killer's universe will also come to life in the heart of the city with a pavilion in Piazza Anfiteatro, created to celebrate twenty years of the franchise and the arrival of the new season.
There is also space for the little ones with a large SpongeBob inflatable, present for the entire duration of Lucca Comics & Games in Piazza Real Collegio, accompanied by a meet & greet with characters in costume.
Netflix will instead be present to celebrate the global phenomenon of KPOP DEMON HUNTERS.
Lucky Red's program is particularly rich, which will open the Movie Area on Wednesday 28 October with the preview of Shaun the Sheep Movie: Operation Z.U.C.C.A., the new film from the creators of Wallace & Gromit, in Italian cinemas from 28 October.
The event takes on a particular significance in the year in which Aardman Studios celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. Two central figures in the history of the British studio will arrive in Lucca: co-founder Peter Lord and co-director Matthew Walker, who will accompany the film on the occasion of the preview.
On October 30th it will be the turn of Look Back, based on the manga of the same name by Tatsuki Fujimoto and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. The Japanese director will meet the festival audience at the end of the screening, before the Italian release of the film, currently scheduled for January 21, 2027.
Also on the program is Kiki – Home Deliveries by Hayao Miyazaki, which returns to the big screen remastered in 4K, while at the Loggiato Pretorio Lucky Red will be present with a stand and an entire area dedicated to Studio Ghibli.
There cannot be Lucca without souls. Crunchyroll returns for the fourth consecutive year with a 150 square meter immersive pavilion in Piazzale Arrigoni, dedicated to some of the public's most loved titles, including One Piece, Black Clover, The Apothecary Diaries and Firefly Wedding.
Among the events, the world premiere of the first two episodes of Shangri-La Frontier Season 3 and the official arrival in Italy for the first time of the Chinese director Li Haoling, author of Link Click and To Be Hero
Toei Animation Europe will instead focus on One Piece and PreCure. The Baluardo Santa Maria will host the renovated pavilion dedicated to the Elbaph saga of One Piece, while Star Detective PreCure – The Movie! will have its western premiere in Lucca on Friday 30 October, with a repeat the following day and the presence of producer Hibiki Minagawa.
Dynit will instead present a national preview of Gintama the Movie 2026: Yoshiwara in Fiamme, in the presence of director Naoya Ando and producer Takashi Maekawa.
Ten days after the debut of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 on Netflix, CD PROJEKT RED will bring the panel Emotional Damage: How Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 Makes You Feel to Lucca, with showrunner Bartosz Sztybor and executive producer Saya Elder, called to delve deeper into the series and its narrative universe.
For Panem fans, there will be a special screening of The Hunger Games - Dawn of the Harvest, the new cinematic chapter of the saga based on the novels by Suzanne Collins, directed by Francis Lawrence and expected in Italian cinemas from November 19th. A dedicated installation will occupy Piazza San Giusto for the entire event.
Universal Pictures will finally celebrate 25 years of Fast & Furious with a special screening on October 28, on the eve of the return to theaters of Rob Cohen's film which began the saga in 2001 with Paul Walker and Vin Diesel.
When darkness falls in Lucca, the Horror Nights of Lucca Comics & Games return, a now traditional event in the Movie Area, including previews, special screenings and meetings with authors and guests.
Among the most anticipated titles is Godzilla Minus Zero by Takashi Yamazaki, which Plaion Pictures will present as a national preview on Saturday 31 October at Cinema Astra. After the Oscar for best visual effects won by the previous chapter, the Japanese director returns behind the camera for the new film produced by TOHO, arriving in Italian cinemas on November 12th.
On October 28th, I Wonder Pictures will propose It Ends, Alexander Ullom's feature film debut, built around a nocturnal journey and a seemingly endless road, progressively transformed into an increasingly disturbing physical and mental space.
Minerva Pictures, together with FilmClub Distribuzione and Digital United Studios, will bring four titles: The Nameless Ballad by Federico Zampaglione, presented together with co-writer Barbara Baraldi; Arachnid, directed by Ángel Gómez Hernández and starring Matilda Lutz; the irreverent horror rereading Popeye's Revenge and, completely changing tone, Momo by Christian Ditter, a new transposition of the novel by Michael Ende with Martin Freeman in the role of Master Hora.
The darker side is completed by Hope by Na Hong-jin, a horror thriller in which a mysterious creature turns a hunting trip into a nightmare. Starring Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Hoyeon, Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell and Cameron Britton. The film will arrive in Italian cinemas from November 5th distributed by MUBI.
The dialogue between drawn images and moving images continues with Caro Mondo Crudele, a new film by Niccolò Falsetti and Francesco Turbanti, directed by Falsetti. The animated sequences are born from the work of Zerocalcare, author of the concept and character design of the animated characters, while the original music is signed by Giancane. Falsetti, Turbanti and Zerocalcare will present the film in Lucca.
From Ratigher's cult graphic novel comes The Little Girls Are Losing Control. Society fears them. The end is blue, the first work by Pierluca Di Pasquale starring Sara Ciocca and Anita Serafini. The screening will be introduced by Ratigher himself, author of the original comic and co-writer of the film together with the director.
However, one of the symbolically strongest encounters between cinema and the Ninth Art will be Frank Miller: American Genius, a documentary written, produced and directed by Silenn Thomas. The director and Frank Miller himself, protagonist of almost fifty years of comics history through works such as Daredevil, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One and Sin City, will participate in the screening.
The program also includes RIFT – The future is in play, a docu-game written by Claudio Di Biagio and Andrea Gallo and directed by Di Biagio himself, produced by Infinity LAB. Four popularizers go through scenarios of the near future, facing environmental crises according to the rules of a role-playing game, to bring tools and awareness back to the present.
Mediaset Infinity will also be present with a "time machine" dedicated to the group's cult content, in which visitors will be able to test their knowledge of the history of cinema and television.
On November 1st, My Soul Has Hurry will also be presented, Giuseppe Contarino's debut documentary dedicated to the story of Nicolas Gentile, pastry chef, father and geologist who decides to pursue the dream of building a real Hobbit County in Abruzzo inspired by the universe of J.R.R. Tolkien.
And for a festival that has reached its sixtieth birthday, a look at its history could not be missed. Rai Cultura will celebrate the anniversary with 60 times Lucca: The adventurous story of Lucca Comics & Games, a special written and directed by Enrico Platania, broadcast on Rai5 on 27 October in the late evening and subsequently available on RaiPlay.
Sixty years after its birth, Lucca continues to do what it does best: putting Godzilla and the 883, Harry Potter and Frank Miller, Miyazaki and Dexter Morgan in the same perimeter. More than a program, a small multiverse with Renaissance walls around it.
