News Culture

Fiamma cinema in Rome to reopen after 8 years

By: Wanted in Rome

Date:

19 Feb, 2025

**Fiamma hosted preview of La Dolce Vita in 1960**.

Rome's historic Fiamma cinema, which closed its doors in 2017, is preparing to reopen after being acquired by the Caroli Group led by the entrepreneur Floriano Caroli.

The cinema on Via Bissolati, just off Via Veneto, will retain its original function as well as operating as a multipurpose cultural centre, Italian media reported on Wednesday.

The complex will be managed by Gianluca Giannelli and Fabia Bettini of the PlaytownRoma Cultural Association who said it will be "a cinema for everyone".

In 2022 the Italian state used funds from the multi-billion National Plan of Recovery and Resilience (PNRR) to acquire the movie theatre for the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (CSC).

Rome cinemas showing films in English

“The Fiamma was a symbol of the golden age of Italian cinema as well as for many Romans who still remember it", the Caroli Group said in a statement announcing the reopening.

Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri welcomed the move, saying that he hopes the Fiamma can spark a "counter-trend stimulus" amid a "very complex panorama of closure and abandonment of cinemas".

The mayor said that the city would "always be on the side of cinemas and will fully do its part to preserve the theatres, promote their survival and relaunch when possible."

The Fiamma launched on 4 February 1960 with the Rome preview of Federico Fellini's classic La Dolce Vita, which was filmed mainly in the Via Veneto area.

The cinema also hosted the premiere of Fellini's 8 ½ on 13 February 1963 as well as the first edition of the David di Donatello awards in 1956.

The Fiamma was also among the Rome cinemas that regularly showed films in English.

The presentation for the new cinema project and programming is set to be unveiled in the coming months, the Corriere della Sera reports.