Italian at UM

28/10/2026

Last Sunday, the Department participated in this year's Festalingwi. It was a pleasure to meet new and familiar faces while sharing our common love of languages. This year, the Department also co-organised a bilingual guided tour of the Valletta Campus with the Department of Translation, Terminology and Interpreting Studies.

28/10/2026

Join us for an exciting public talk on the film 𝘋𝘰𝘭𝘤𝘦. The talk will be delivered by director Charlie Cauchi and cinematographer Julie Mingo.

𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: Wednesday 11 November 2026
𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲: 17:00
𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲:Lecture Centre Room 118 (LC118), Msida Campus

𝗙𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: https://www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/upcomingevents/2026/dolcepublictalkbydirectorcharliecauchiandcinematographerjuliemingo.html

26/10/2026

Games, quizzes, and fascinating insights into Italian: on 22 October, members of the Department of Italian brought the language and culture of Italy to life for 120 students from Gozo’s schools at Sir M. A. Refalo Sixth Form in Victoria. The participants included Year 11 pupils and sixth-form students. The initiative was made possible thanks to the valuable collaboration of Christine A. Borġ, Education Officer for Italian within the Directorate for Early Years, Languages and Humanities. The event opened with a lively address by Giuseppe Restuccia, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Valletta. Pupils and students then took part in a variety of games and quizzes and discovered a wealth of curious facts about the Italian language and culture. A big thank you to everyone who helped make the event possible, and especially to the pupils, students, and their teachers for their enthusiasm and curiosity!

22/10/2026

💀 Tomorrow! Join us for this talk delivered by scriptwriter and novelist Lucio Besana! 👻

21/10/2026

Join us this Sunday at Festalingwi, at the Valletta Campus, from 11am onwards! The tour, organised in collaboration with Translation & Interpreting Studies at UM, starts at 16:00 😄

19/10/2026

28/09/2026

The M.A. in Film Studies is organising its first event of this academic year in collaboration with VIDEO NASTIES! 2026: a public talk entitled “Traumacore: Traumatic Memory and the Purpose of Dark Fiction”, delivered by Italian screenwriter and novelist Lucio Besana. The talk will be held in English at 18:00 on Friday 23 October, at the Dun Mikiel Xerri Lecture Centre (LC), Room 216, Msida Campus.

As a constant reader of horror and weird fiction, Besana has asked himself repeatedly a maddening question: why? Why delve into horror? Why experience the existential dread of weird fiction? Isn’t the real world enough? By digging into the peculiar state of mind of survivors, into PTSD and traumatic memory, taking stabs at 'capitalist realism' and 'hauntology', Besana's talk will propose an answer and reframe the dark genres as a means to verbalise the everyday unspeakable.

Lucio Besana works as a screenwriter, novelist, translator, and teacher. In the last decade, he penned two prominent Italian horror movies, "The Nest" (2019) and "A Classic Horror Story" (2021); published four successful books of horror fiction, "Storie della Serie Cremisi" (2021), "Ombre dei Vivi e dei Morti" and "L’Innocenza del Buio" (both 2023), as well as "La Stanza Bianca" (2026); and translated several classic and contemporary literary works of horror and weird fiction. He teaches at Scuola Holden in Turin and at Scuola Civica di Cinema Luchino Visconti in Milan. He lives in Strasbourg, France.

Video Nasties! is Malta’s premier horror short film festival, now entering its sixth year of celebrating the macabre, the DIY, and the truly independent. This year’s edition is scheduled for Halloween weekend. For more information, please visit: https://www.videonastiesfestival.com/

20/07/2026

Master of Arts in Film Studies

01/07/2026

A heartfelt thank you to Prof. Alfred Vella for his years of dedicated service as Rector. We're especially grateful for his support of our initiatives within Italian and Film, and for attending so many of our events over the years.

We also want to congratulate Prof. Frank Bezzina as he begins his tenure as Rector. We wish him all the best and look forward to working together in the years ahead!

https://tvmnews.mt/en/news/prof-frank-bezzina-officially-sworn-in-as-university-rector/

https://tvmnews.mt/en/news/prof-alfred-vella-steps-down-after-ten-years-as-rector-of-the-university-of-malta/

Aqra bil- Malti Today marks the end of Professor Alfred J. Vella’s ten-year tenure at…