Nature and Culture: The Tavolara Film Festival

The beautiful northwest coast of Sardinia is famous for its unspoiled nature and its spectacular beaches.

Represented by Immobilsarda Srl, the Christie's International Real Estate exclusive Affiliate in Sardinia, the Capo Ceraso Resort, located close to Olbia and facing the island of Tavolara, is an excellent starting point for exploring the beautiful North West coast of Sardinia and its islands, and participate in interesting activities organized by the local cultural community. One of these exceptional cultural festivals is the famous film festival, “A Night in Italy.” Earlier this summer, the Tavolara island hosted the 20th Anniversary of the “Italian Film Festival of Tavolara." Founded in 1991 by a group of friends and lovers of Tavolara and of the seventh art, the festival has closely followed the production and history of Italian cinema over the past 20 years, and has involved many authors and artists in its development.

The festival has retained its original aims: to showcase Italian cinema and to demonstrate that a good environment of inestimable value such as the Tavolara island can be enjoyed with events that perfectly combine landscape protection and tourism. Dedicated to showcasing young directors as well as significant works of the regional landscape, activities at the festival have always emphasized the environmental enhancement of the island and have also helped the establishment of a protected marine reserve. The protected marine area stretches along the coast of northwest Sardinia from Cala Finocchio to Capo Ceraso and includes the islands of Tavolara, Molara, and Molarotto.

Over the past 20 years, the festival has developed a packed program of activities during which the public and professionals come together on the same boat and in the same auditorium. (Tavolara is reached through a public ferry that, during the festival, operates late into the night after each screening.) The size of the event, its credibility at the national level, and the quality of journalists and experts involved make this one of the most well-recognized film festivals in the country.

The Tavolara island is a tourist spot, not only for the film festival but also for its wonderful natural heritage. Tavolara Island is a real limestone peak in the Tyrrhenian Sea, which can be reached during the day via boats that depart from Porto San Paolo (16 kilometers south of Olbia) every half-hour.