Trieste Film Festival 2027: B2B merchandising for distributors, producers and sales agents of the Alpe Adria area

Production briefing before the lab order

Dates

Traditionally in the second half of January, across a window of about five days that opens with the opening night and closes with the awards ceremony. The specific dates of each edition are published on the festival direction website before the opening of accreditations.

Venues

Sala Tripcovich (main hall), Teatro Miela, Cinema Ariston and other venues in central Trieste hosting the competition screenings, retrospectives and industry meetings. Hospitality spaces for delegates, accreditation areas and the industry desk for negotiations between sales agents and buyers.

Audience

Film-industry delegates, distributors and sales agents, European festival buyers, specialised press, juries, delegates from the partner festivals of the Alpe Adria area, cinephile public of the competition nights and retrospectives.

Operational calendar

Opening of industry accreditations in the days before the opening night, two-three days of screenings and industry activity, weekend open to the public, awards night and closing with the morning of greetings between delegates.

Trieste Film Festival — an event dedicated to Italian and Central European cinema held each January in Trieste — gathers distributors, sales agents, buyers, partner festivals, emerging directors, cultural institutes, trade press and cinephile public in a week of screenings, industry meetings, masterclasses and retrospectives. It is one of the main reference moments for independent cinema of the Alpe Adria area (Italy, Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Bosnia, Serbia) and works as a market platform for titles seeking international distribution in the early-year window.

Corp-Merch.IT has worked across several editions with distributors, sales agents and producers joining the Trieste Film Festival, and is familiar with the tight window of the early-year festival calendar: the January window of Trieste sits after the European Film Awards and ahead of the Berlinale, and any branded item that needs to be at the industry desk, the delegate hotel or the festival warehouse for the first accreditation day has to be locked well in advance. We work with a network of Italian labs aligned with the film sector: Como textile for the cotton of the coordinated totes, Fabriano paper for the press kits of the films, Collodi wood for the welcome boxes of the juries, Maniago steel for the metallic accreditations of the juries and masterclass speakers. We receive the client's master graphic files (AI, EPS, PDF/X-4 with CMYK images at 300 dpi, FOGRA39 colour profile for print, Pantone for textiles) and adapt them across the various customisation techniques: water-based screen print on GOTS-certified organic cotton for the delegates' totes, hot-foil stamping on FSC-certified paper for the press kits and technical sheets of the titles in programme, laser engraving on walnut wood for the welcome boxes of the juries and masterclass speakers, UV print on recycled PVC for industry badges and the opening-day passes. Quality control runs at AQL 2.5 on each lot, and delivery to the festival warehouse, industry desk or delegate hotel follows slots from the festival calendar.

For Italian clients the invoice goes out via the Italian Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) of the Agenzia delle Entrate with 22% VAT in EUR; reverse charge for intra-EU buyers with VIES, split payment for public-sector entities, codice destinatario or PEC for electronic delivery of the invoice. For editorial materials (press kits, technical sheets, sales catalogues) the reduced 4% or 5% VAT rate applies under current Italian tax rules. For clients subject to CSRD reporting (D.Lgs. 125/2024, transposing Directive (EU) 2022/2464) we provide a sustainability data sheet per order with Scope 3 CO₂e estimates under the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain on the Italian legs and from the named supply chains, aligned with ESRS E1 and E5.

Festival calendar and day-by-day logistics

The January window of Trieste Film Festival is concentrated and has to be planned with a calendar that starts with the industry accreditations of the week before, runs through the opening night on Tuesday, the competition screenings and masterclasses of Wednesday and Thursday, the weekend open to the public with the retrospectives, the awards day on Saturday and the morning of greetings between delegates on Sunday. For distributors and sales agents the gap between festival graphic confirmation and the opening of the industry days is usually below ten weeks, and any item that needs to be at the industry desk, the delegate hotel or the festival warehouse for the first accreditation day has to be closed and shipped at least five working days before opening. We work backwards from that moment: production closes two-three weeks before the opening; the courier slot to Trieste is booked for Tuesday or Wednesday of the previous week; the addressee list (industry desk, halls, warehouse, delegate hotels) is finalised with the festival direction at least two weeks before opening; the edition-specific print runs (year, edition number, titles in programme, co-production logos) only add a small reprint on top of a neutral graphic base already produced.

Production and logistics to the Trieste Film Festival venues

Before launching production we confirm graphics, quantities per recipient, packing and named delivery point. The final address is defined close to the festival weeks against the calendar issued by the direction: Sala Tripcovich and Teatro Miela have regulated access in central Trieste; the industry desk runs its own delivery windows that have to be coordinated with the direction contacts; the delegate hotels and festival warehouses require recipient-labelled deliveries. The ZTL of Trieste's historic centre conditions courier access, which is why most teams opt for early-morning or post-19:30 deliveries, when heavy vehicles are again allowed in the ZTL areas of the centre. For materials requiring climate-controlled conditions (press kits, retrospective booklets, poster prints) we coordinate climate-controlled transport with specialised partners.

For Italian programmes routed through Milan, shipments are consolidated at the hub and forwarded by BRT, SDA, GLS or DHL Express Italy with 24-hour windows across most Italian postcodes, with dedicated slots for direct deliveries to Sala Tripcovich, Teatro Miela or the festival warehouse. For programmes above 1,000 pieces we offer appointment delivery with phone pre-notice and, on request, on-site set-up by our staff. For clients subject to CSRD (D.Lgs. 125/2024) we integrate a Scope 3 CO₂e sheet under the GHG Protocol on the Italian legs and on the provenances from the named districts, aligned with ESRS E1 and E5. Goods travel with DDT, packing list and origin declaration, and split deliveries between hall, warehouse, delegate hotel and industry desk are managed with separate packing lists per destination and dedicated on-site labelling.

For programmes that also include gala dinners, networking meetings with buyers or Alpe Adria area side events we prepare a separate logistical calendar with dedicated slots for each moment of the event, and we integrate transport coverage to the partner-festival venues that join the market days. For extra-EU buyers based outside the EU the invoice goes out without Italian VAT citing the relevant regulatory exemption; for intra-EU buyers with a valid VIES number reverse charge applies with the relevant article cited. For representation programmes that call for dedicated venue reception (masterclasses, juries, institutional meetings) we handle the time-sensitive delivery of kits to the hall, the delegate hotel or the festival warehouse.

Frequently asked questions