Perugia Social Film Festival

What Perugia Social Film Festival does

The Perugia Social Film Festival (PerSo Film Festival) is a non-profit international documentary film festival founded in 2014 and headquartered in Perugia, Italy. It is operated by Associazione RealMente APS (Associazione di Promozione Sociale), a non-profit cultural association, in collaboration with Fondazione La Città del Sole Onlus, a mental-health foundation that originated the festival project and continues to support it. The core product is an annual 12-day festival (XI edition held September 26 – October 8, 2025; XII edition scheduled September 24 – October 4, 2026) featuring free-admission competitive sections for medium-length documentaries (PerSo Award) and short documentaries (Perso Short Award), plus thematic, out-of-competition, retrospective, and VR sections (PerSə nella VR, curated by Valentina Noya with Università di Pavia – Officine Creative).

Beyond the annual event, the festival operates a year-round program including LATOb (a cinema-and-music series in partnership with Umbria Green Festival and local cinemas), educational initiatives La settima ora (school screenings and juries) and Fuoricampo (film-production workshops with CPIA Perugia 1 adult learners), a prison-jury initiative with Casa Circondariale di Perugia-Capanne, and the Premio Cesare Zavattini for creative documentary using archival footage (Fondazione AAMOD partnership, 10th anniversary in 2025). Distribution is concentrated in regional cinema venues across Perugia — Cinema Méliès, Cinema PostModernissimo, Cinema Zenith, Cinema Pavone, and Palazzo della Penna — with no digital streaming platform. International filmmaker submissions span at least 14 countries across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East.

The business model is donation- and grant-funded: all screenings are free, with revenue derived from voluntary donations (routed via Fondazione La Città del Sole), public cultural grants, and private sponsorship. There is no ticketing, no merchandise revenue disclosed, no venture or equity funding, and no disclosed financials. The team is an 18-person roster of artistic directors, programmers, operational coordinators, a communications lead, a Green Manager, and a web administrator. There are no fundraising rounds, acquisitions, subsidiaries, or parent entities; ownership resides collectively within the Associazione RealMente APS structure.

Name

Perugia Social Film Festival

Legal name

Perugia Social Film Festival

Website

https://persofilmfestival.it

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Perugia Social Film Festival (PerSo) is a non-profit international documentary film festival founded in 2014 in Perugia, Italy, offering free-admission competitive screenings, VR sections, year-round cinema programs, and educational and prison-jury initiatives, funded by donations and grants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Film Festival / Cultural Events

NAICS

Motion Picture and Video Exhibition (51213)

SIC

Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Film Festivals & Festival Organizers (MPADAKAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Community & Cultural Screenings (Museums, Cultural Centers) (MPADAKAH), Screening Rooms & Cinematheques (Nonprofit/Institutional) (MPADAKAF), Short-Form Documentaries (MPADADAC)

Keywords

• Documentary film festival
• Social cinema screenings
• Film competition sections
• Cinema education programs
• Cultural event programming

Headquarters

HQ city

Perugia

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Donations and Fundraising: The festival operates primarily through donations from supporters and is run by non-profit organizations (Fondazione La Città del Sole and Associazione RealMente APS). Entry to all screenings is free.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Perugia Social Film Festival (PerSo) is an annual international documentary film festival held in Perugia, Italy, featuring competitive sections (PerSo Award for medium-length documentaries, Perso Short Award for short documentaries), thematic non-competitive screenings, a virtual reality documentary section (PerSə nella VR), retrospectives, and multidisciplinary events. All screenings are free entry, and the festival operates year-round with cinema-and-music series (LATOb) and educational programs (Fuoricampo, La settima ora) for schools and adult learners.

Product overview

Perugia International Social Film Festival (PerSo Film Festival) is a documentary film festival operating as a multi-section event with both competitive and non-competitive programming. The core offerings include PerSo Award (international feature-length documentary competition) and Perso Short Award (international short documentary competition), alongside thematic sections such as Ecovisioni (environmental films), Spazio Umbria (regional films), PerSə nella VR (virtual reality), Fuori concorso (special screenings), Altri sguardi (social issues), and retrospectives. Year-round activities include LATOb (cinema and music events), Fuoricampo and La settima ora (school cinema education programs), and the Premio Cesare Zavattini (archival documentary award). The festival is organized by Fondazione La Città del Sole Onlus and Associazione RealMente APS.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• LATOb: Year-round cinema and music event series promoted by PerSo Film Festival and Umbria Green Festival, featuring film screenings and live music performances at Arena Giardini del Frontone.
• Fuoricampo
• La settima ora

Products and services

• PerSo Film Festival Annual international documentary film festival with competitive and non-competitive sections, VR experiences, retrospectives, and multidisciplinary events held in Perugia, Italy.
• PerSo Award International competition for medium-to-long length documentary films, featuring official jury, university student jury, and audience awards (PerSo Agorà).
• Perso Short Award International competition for short documentary films with special juries including detainees (PerSo Short Jail) and student juries.
• PerSə nella VR Virtual reality film showcase featuring immersive documentaries and VR experiences exploring themes of human impact on the planet.
• Ecovisioni Film showcase dedicated to environmental sustainability themes, part of the festival's thematic sections.
• Spazio Umbria Film showcase featuring documentaries about the Umbria region and works by Umbrian filmmakers.
• Premio Cesare Zavattini Award dedicated to creative documentary cinema, promoted by Fondazione AAMOD, targeting young filmmakers and emerging authors working with archival footage.
• LATOb Year-round cinema and music event series combining film screenings and live music performances.
• Fuoricampo School cinema project involving workshops, film forums, and short film production for adult students from CPIA Perugia 1.
• La settima ora Cinema education project for primary and secondary schools, involving film screenings, meetings with authors, and student jury activities.

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Fondazione La Città del Sole – OnluscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFounded in 1998, Fondazione La Città del Sole is the original creator of the PerSo Film Festival project in 2014. Active in mental health field, the foundation organized the festival until 2018 when branding and organization transferred to Associazione RealMente APS. The foundation continues to support the festival and its activities.
• Associazione RealMente APScoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFounded in 2016, Associazione RealMente APS took over the PerSo Film Festival branding and organization from 2019. The association promotes culture and social solidarity through event design and realization in collaboration with Third Sector entities.
• Film TVminorGTM or Marketing PartnerMedia partner for the festival, with the Film TV editorial team serving as the jury for Perso Short Award competition.
• Casa Circondariale di Perugia-CapanneminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPenitentiary institution in Perugia where detainees serve as jury members (Perso Short Jail) for the short film competition, demonstrating the festival's commitment to social inclusion.
• Liceo Scientifico G. GalileiminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPerugia high school whose students participate as jury members (La Settima Ora prize) in the festival's educational programming.
• Fondazione AAMODminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerArchivio Audiovisivo del Movimento Operaio e Democratico (AAMOD) partners with PerSo for the Premio Cesare Zavattini, a competition for creative documentary filmmaking using archival materials, celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2025.
• CPIA Perugia 1minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCentro Provinciale Istruzione Adulti Perugia 1 partners with PerSo for the Fuoricampo project, providing cinema education workshops for adult learners with multicultural backgrounds.
• Valentina NoyaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerVice president of Associazione Museo Nazionale del Cinema and producer at Notte Americana srl, curates the PerSə nella VR section featuring virtual reality documentary content.
• Umbria Green FestivalminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborates with PerSo on the LATOb (cinema and music) program, a year-round event series combining film and music performances.
• CinegattiminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorLocal cinema operator partnering with PerSo for LATOb events and festival activities.
• Cinema ZenithminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPerugia cinema venue serving as a location for festival screenings and LATOb events.
• T-TraneminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartner in the LATOb cinema and music series, contributing to the multidisciplinary festival programming.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• DOC NYC: Largest documentary festival in the United States, held annually in New York. Comparable as a major documentary festival drawing submissions from the same international social-issue filmmaker pool as PerSo.
• CPH:DOX: Copenhagen-based international documentary festival with a strong art-documentary identity and industry platform. Comparable as a peer-tier documentary festival targeting the same pool of socially engaged international filmmakers.
• Sheffield DocFest: Major UK documentary and arts festival with a substantial industry market (MeetMarket) and year-round programs. Comparable as a leading international documentary festival competing for the same social-issue feature and short documentary submissions.
• Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival: North America's largest documentary festival, held in Toronto with an industry market. Comparable in curatorial ambition for social-issue documentaries and as a benchmark for international filmmaker recruitment.
• IDFA – International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam: One of the world's largest documentary festivals with a major industry market, training programs, and competitive sections. Comparable as a global documentary festival competing for the same international social-issue filmmaker submissions.

Direct peers

• Visions du Réel: Swiss (Nyon) international documentary film festival focused on creative and social documentary cinema. Comparable as a mid-size European documentary festival with a similar thematic niche and international competitive sections.
• True/False Film Fest: US documentary festival (Columbia, Missouri) recognized for curatorial rigor in non-fiction cinema. Comparable as a curated documentary festival competing for international social-issue documentary premieres and filmmaker attention.
• Biografilm Festival: Annual Italian documentary and biography film festival held in Bologna. Directly comparable as a domestic Italian documentary festival with competitive sections, retrospectives, and educational programming targeting social and cultural themes.
• Festival dei Popoli: Florence-based international documentary film festival, founded in 1959. Closely comparable as an Italian international documentary festival with competitive sections and a historical focus on social-realist cinema.

Regional players

• Milano Film Festival: Italian film festival (formerly MilanoFilmFestival) with documentary and independent programming. Comparable as a domestic Italian film festival offering documentary competition within a broader cultural program.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/PerSoFilmFest
• Facebookfacebook.com/persofilmfestival

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles18 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Perugia Social Film Festival