Cecilia Bartoli

Cecilia Bartoli holds a degree in Performing Arts (Discipline dello Spettacolo) from the University of Pisa and obtained a Master’s Degree in Drama and Screenwriting from the “Silvio d’Amico” National Academy of Dramatic Art in Rome. She has worked as an actress, assistant director and dramaturg at the Teatro Nazionale di Genova and Teatro Due in Parma. She collaborates as an actress, educator, and cultural mediator with Teatrino dei Fondi (San Miniato) and La Ribalta Teatro (Pisa). She was a finalist for the Premio Scenario Infanzia in 2022 and 2024 with her plays ‘Il Minotauro senza fili’ and ‘India’, as well as for Netpitch 2023 with the TV series project ‘Bumme!’.”. In 2025, she received the Premio Sonego for the feature film “Kitsch Hot”.

The project

Kitsch Hot is a feature film concept born from the intersection of comedy and genre cinema, with the musical as a lens through which to see – and reshape – reality.

Rita is a woman in her thirties who has given up every ambition for a dull life beside her drug-dealer boyfriend. When he is kidnapped by the dangerous Windmill Gang, she finds herself reluctantly partnering with Lady Quixote: a middle-aged drag queen with the power (or perhaps just the conviction) of turning any moment into a musical number. Chased through the streets of Rome, the two women form an unlikely alliance that gradually becomes something necessary: a way to survive, sure, but also a way to learn to recognize their own worth.

Our project explores the line between one’s need to escape and the importance of facing what frightens us most. During the residency, we will focus on finalizing the treatment and we will start working on the musical aspects of our comedy. As this is a musical with original songs, we hope to start sketching out lyrics, while continuing our search for the right composer who can help us create the world we are building.