Cinema Vocabulary: Talking About Films in Italian

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By Rossana Pazzaglia, native Italian teacher with a CEDILS certification in teaching Italian to foreigners (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) · Updated 19 October 2026

“Che film hai visto ieri sera? Di che cosa parla? Ti è piaciuto?” These are very simple questions, but answering them in Italian takes precise vocabulary. Cinema is one of the most enjoyable ways to study the language: the dialogues are authentic, the stories keep you motivated and you can replay a scene as many times as you like. The words you need are below, with a few titles to start from and a couple of exercises, so they don’t vanish as soon as the end credits roll.

Italian Cinema: A Heritage Worth Knowing

Italian cinema had a hugely important season with neorealism. According to Treccani, neorealism is a film poetics that took hold in the 1940s, characterised by stories and characters from humble everyday life, often non-professional actors, and natural settings instead of studios ^[1]. The same source lists among the key films Roma città aperta (Roberto Rossellini, 1945), Sciuscià (Vittorio De Sica, 1946) and Ladri di biciclette (De Sica, 1948) ^[1].

More recently, Paolo Sorrentino’s La grande bellezza won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2014 ^[2]. Italian cinema keeps producing very different films: comedies, dramas, documentaries and auteur films.

Basic Vocabulary

Italian	English
il film	film / movie
la pellicola	film (more technical or literary term)
il / la regista	director
l’attore / l’attrice	actor / actress
il protagonista / la protagonista	main character
la trama	plot
la sceneggiatura	screenplay
la colonna sonora	soundtrack
il doppiaggio	dubbing
i sottotitoli	subtitles
il cinema	movie theatre
la sala	screening room
la scena	scene
il finale	ending

Film Genres

• la commedia – comedy
• il film drammatico – drama
• il thriller – thriller
• il film horror – horror film
• il documentario – documentary
• il film d’animazione – animated film
• il film d’autore – arthouse film
• il film storico – historical film

Useful Expressions for Talking About a Film

Asking for information

• “Di che cosa parla questo film?” (What is this film about?)
• “Chi è il regista?” (Who is the director?)
• “Che tipo di film è?” (What kind of film is it?)

Giving an opinion

• “Mi è piaciuto molto.” / “Non mi è piaciuto per niente.” (I loved it. / I didn’t like it at all.)
• “La recitazione era eccellente.” (The acting was excellent.)
• “La trama è un po’ prevedibile.” (The plot is a bit predictable.)
• “Il finale mi ha sorpreso.” (The ending surprised me.)

Giving information

• È tratto da un libro. (It’s based on a book.)
• È ambientato a Roma negli anni Cinquanta. (It’s set in Rome in the 1950s.)
• Ha vinto diversi premi. (It won several awards.)

Mini-Dialogue

Sara: Hai visto l’ultimo film di quel regista?
Marco: Sì, ieri sera. È un film drammatico ambientato in Sicilia.
Sara: E ti è piaciuto?
Marco: Molto. La trama è emozionante e la colonna sonora è bellissima. Il finale però mi ha sorpreso.
Sara: Allora lo guardo anch’io, magari con i sottotitoli!

How to Use Films to Learn Italian

I often tell my students that learning a language takes every activity together: reading, writing, speaking, listening to music and watching films with subtitles. Films are probably the most enjoyable of all, but they only really work if you use them actively. Here’s how:

1. Choose a film you already know. If you know the plot, you can focus on vocabulary and pronunciation.
2. Use Italian subtitles. Reading and listening together helps connect sound and spelling.
3. Rewatch short scenes. Write down 5–10 new expressions and reuse them in your own sentences.
4. Retell the plot. After watching, summarise the film in 5–6 sentences in the present tense.

Titles such as La vita è bella (Life Is Beautiful), Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Cinema Paradiso) or Il postino (The Postman) are common starting points for learners; always check the language level and choose films you really like. For a broader study plan, see my 7 strategies to learn Italian fast.

Film dialogues are full of pronominal verbs such as andarsene or farcela (“Ce la farà il protagonista?”), which are explained in my guide to Italian pronominal verbs. And if you continue the evening at a restaurant after the film, you may like to read about table manners in Italy.

Behind the Camera: Film Jobs and Cinema Verbs

Once you can name the director and the main character, you can go one step further and talk about the people and actions that make a film happen. Here are the words I teach most often to intermediate students.

Italian	English
lo sceneggiatore / la sceneggiatrice	screenwriter
il produttore / la produttrice	producer
il montatore / la montatrice	film editor
il direttore / la direttrice della fotografia	cinematographer
il doppiatore / la doppiatrice	voice actor (who dubs a film)
la comparsa	extra
il costumista / la costumista	costume designer
il montaggio	editing

Now the verbs. Note that Italian often chooses a different verb from English:

• girare un film – to shoot a film (not fare in this sense): Il regista ha girato il film a Napoli.
• recitare / interpretare – to act / to play a role: Interpreta un giovane medico.
• uscire nelle sale – to be released in cinemas: Il film esce a novembre.
• proiettare – to screen: Questa sera proiettano un documentario.
• doppiare / sottotitolare – to dub / to subtitle.
• ambientare – to set a story somewhere: La storia è ambientata in Puglia.

Two Words with a Story: Sceneggiatura and Doppiaggio

Two of the words in our basic list say a lot about how Italians experience cinema. According to the Treccani dictionary, sceneggiatura is the division of a theatrical, film or radio-television work into scenes, and also the script of a film containing the text divided into scenes. The word comes from the verb sceneggiare (to divide into scenes) ^[3]. The same entry mentions the sceneggiatura di ferro, the final, very detailed version that records every moment of the film with camera and sound indications ^[3].

As for doppiaggio, Treccani defines it as the operation by which a film receives a sound track different from the original, for instance to transfer the dialogue into another language ^[4]. The encyclopedia entry also gives some history of dubbing in Italy: the first Italian dubbing studio opened in 1932, and the number of dubbers grew from about 300 in the late 1950s to more than 1,500 around the turn of the millennium ^[4]. This long tradition explains why, in Italy, foreign films are very often shown dubbed, and why you will often hear Italian speakers talk about the voce italiana of a famous actor. For a learner it is an advantage: you can watch the same scene dubbed and in the original language, and compare.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Plural of film. Film does not change: un film, due film (not films).
• Cinema = building or art. Vado al cinema means I am going to the movie theatre; il cinema italiano is the whole art form.
• Parlare di, not su. Say Il film parla di una famiglia, not parla su.
• Agreement of piacere. Mi è piaciuto il film, but Mi sono piaciuti gli attori: the participle agrees with the thing you like.
• Guardare vs vedere. Guardo un film describes the activity; ho visto un film is more natural for a completed experience.

Exercises

1. Fill in the gaps (regista, trama, sottotitoli, colonna sonora, doppiaggio).

1. Il ___ ha diretto tre film in due anni.
2. Non ho capito tutta la ___: era molto complicata.
3. Guardo i film con i ___ in italiano.
4. La ___ è di un compositore molto famoso.
5. In Italia il ___ è molto diffuso.

Answers: 1) regista; 2) trama; 3) sottotitoli; 4) colonna sonora; 5) doppiaggio.

2. Write three sentences about the last film you watched using: “È tratto da…”, “Mi è piaciuto / non mi è piaciuto perché…”, “Il finale…”.

3. Choose the right verb (girare, interpreta, ambientata, esce, doppiati).

1. Il nuovo film di Sorrentino ___ a dicembre.
2. La storia è ___ a Venezia nel Settecento.
3. Quell’attore ___ un detective molto simpatico.
4. Il regista vuole ___ il film in poche settimane.
5. In Italia i film stranieri sono spesso ___ in italiano.

Answers: 1) esce; 2) ambientata; 3) interpreta; 4) girare; 5) doppiati.

4. Think and speak. Choose a film you know well and answer aloud: Who directed it? Where is it set? Which scene do you remember best, and why? Would you prefer to watch it dubbed or with subtitles? Record yourself for one minute and listen again, paying attention to the vocabulary from this article.

Conclusion

Watching films is a natural way to widen your vocabulary and train your ear. Fancy analysing a scene together? Book a free 30-minute trial lesson, join the course waiting list or take the free level test.

Sources

• [1] “Neorealismo”, Enciclopedia Treccani online (accessed 6 October 2026)
• [2] Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, “The 86th Academy Awards” (2014): The Great Beauty, Foreign Language Film (accessed 19 October 2026)
• [3] “Sceneggiatura”, Vocabolario Treccani online (accessed 6 October 2026)
• [4] “Doppiaggio”, Enciclopedia Treccani online (accessed 6 October 2026)