2025 Edition

Come Together
17 July / 2 November 2025

Director Veronica Nicolardi
Artistic Director Paolo Woods
Photography Curator Kublaiklan

Statement by the Artistic Director

This year’s theme came to me while closing last year’s festival, on 4 November, the day before the US elections. The results of those elections made me realize that we live in an increasingly divided world where fault lines widen into open wounds and extremism feeds on polarization, where opposing sides do not speak but shout.

I wondered whether the festival should be a mirror of this world or should it try to direct our gaze towards something much more difficult to describe but much more important to achieve: reconciliation. The theme of the 15th edition of Cortona On The Move is “Come Together.” We will deal with wounds and healing. “Come Together” will explore why reconciliation is the only viable option, probing some of the many ways to achieve it—socially, politically and personally. Because indeed, reconciliation is not only with the other but foremost with oneself.

This 15th anniversary edition doesn’t seek to offer easy answers. Instead, it studies the spaces between ruptures and repair, between conflict and unity, exploring what it means to find common ground when the ground itself often feels like it’s falling away. We come to realize that reconciliation is not solely a compromise but requires us to embrace paradigm shifts and affirm new ways of being.

“Come Together” will be beautiful but also raw, messy and rough-edged. It is about the force and courage that keeps us trying to mend fractured relationships, whether it’s within families, across borders, or in the quiet, desperate attempt to reconcile with the self. By looking at stories where healing is possible, even if incomplete and imperfect, “Come Together” offers not just a view of the world as it is but as it might be.

As the author of the song that inspired the title of this edition wrote: “I know you, you know me. One thing I can tell you is you got to be free. Come together, right now.”

Exhibitions

Cortona On The Move | BarTur Grant (first edition)

Launched in 2025, the Il Cortona On The Move | BarTur Grant was created through the collaboration between Cortona On The Move and the BarTur Photo Award, with the support of the Visual Storytellers Fund. The initiative aims to support photographers from around the world by providing grants and resources for the development of compelling documentary photography projects that address urgent social, environmental, economic, and cultural issues of our time.

The grant consists of a Grand Prize of $30,000 and two additional awards of $5,000 each, dedicated to emerging photographers under the age of 30.
The winner of the 2025 inaugural Grand Prize is Daniel Ochoa de Olza with the project “The Gap / La Frontera.”
The recipients of the under-30 emerging photographer awards are Anya Tsaruk with “I Hope Your Family Is Safe” and Matin Hashemi with “Generation Z in Iran.”

Discover the first edition of the Cortona On The Move | BarTur Grant.

Opening

Click here for the full program

Portfolio Reviews

• Amnon Bar-Tur, Co-Founder BarTur Photo Award
• Michele Bella, Director Galleria Valeria Bella
• Antonio Carloni, Deputy Director Gallerie d’Italia-Torino
• Edda Fahrenhorst, Artistic Director Yeast Photo Festival & Environmental Photo Festival horizonte zingst
  
• Renata Ferri, Journalist and curator
• Gianmarco & Gianluca Gamberini, Founders L’Artiere Edizioni
• Sarah Gilbert, Picture Editor The Guardian
  
• François Hébel, Director at Large International Center of Photography (ICP)
• Nathalie Herschdorfer, Curator and Director Museum Photo Elysée
• Emmanuelle Kouchner, Director Delpire & co
• David Y. Lee, Senior Program Officer Storytelling, National Geographic Society
  
• Lars Lindemann, International Project Curator COTM, Independent Curator
• Chiara Magni, Head of Public Engagement Medici Senza Frontiere
• Marie Monteleone, Senior Photo Editor Bloomberg
• Arianna Rinaldo, Curator PhEST
• Jakob Weber, Photo Editor Die Zeit
  

Vittoria Castagna Award (second edition)

The first edition of the Vittoria Castagna Prize was proposed in 2023. Launched by the ONTHEMOVE Cultural Association as part of the international photography festival Cortona On The Move, it is aimed at young people in training or who have already completed their studies (max. age 30) working in the field of marketing and communication for cultural production.
The project selection jury included, in addition to the board of the ONTHEMOVE Cultural Association, members of the festival team and experts working in the fields of cultural planning and management and marketing and communication for culture, some of whom were representatives of the educational institutions where the call for entries was circulated, in particular

ACCADEMIA DI BELLE ARTI DI BRESCIA SANTAGIULIA – Camilla Gualina – Coordinator of Art Education and Communication and Heritage Promotion
FONDAZIONE FITZCARRALDO – Dario Consoli – Project Manager of Competence Development, Cultural Manager, and Communication Strategist
UNIVERSITÀ BOCCONI – Guido Guerzoni – Adjunct Professor of Museum Management at Università Bocconi and CEO of Formules
UNIVERSITÀ BOCCONI – Paola Dubini – Professor of Management
Franklin University Switzerland – Giulia Miniero – Associate Professor of Marketing, Chair of the Business and Economics Division
POLITECNICO DI MILANO School of Management – Eleonora Carloni – Assistant Professor in Management Engineering @Politecnico di Milano
Future Concept Lab – Francesco Morace – Sociologist, essayist, and Co-Founder of Future Concept Lab, International Research and Consulting Institute, Expert in Trends within Social and Market Research
Future Concept Lab – Linda Gobbi – Sociologist, Co-Founder of Future Concept Lab, Expert in Research Methodology, Socio-Cultural Analysis, and Consumer Segmentation

Among the three finalists — Sara Dessoni, Valentina Palazzari, and Matilde Perini — Matilde Perini was selected as the winner of the 2025 edition.