 |
| Three-time Academy Award winner Carlo Rambaldi with his model of E.T. Photo: courtesy of Fondazione Carlo Rambaldi |
MoMA and Cinecittà Present: Carlo Rambaldi, a 15-film retrospective, celebrating the career of the three-time Academy Award Visual Special Effects winner for John Guillermin’s King Kong (starring Jessica Lange and Jeff Bridges), Ridley Scott’s Alien (Sigourney Weaver, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt), and Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Drew Barrymore, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote).
 |
| The President of Fondazione Carlo Rambaldi, Daniela Rambaldi, with Anne-Katrin Titze on the opening night of MoMA and Cinecittà Present: Carlo Rambaldi Photo: Sally Fischer PR |
Other films in the series include the opening night selection, Dario Argento’s Profondo Rosso (Deep Red), starring David Hemmings; David Lynch’s Dune (Kyle MacLachlan, Virginia Madsen); Spielberg’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (François Truffaut, Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban); Roger Vadim’s Barbarella (Jane Fonda, Marcel Marceau, David Hemmings, Ugo Tognazzi); Joseph Losey’s Modesty Blaise (screenplay by Evan Jones and Harold Pinter, starring Monica Vitti and Dirk Bogarde); and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s I Racconti Di Canterbury (The Canterbury Tales).
Daniela Rambaldi, President of the Carlo Rambaldi Foundation, reflects on her father's legacy: “For my father, cinema was never just entertainment, it was a bridge between dream and reality. Through his creatures, from Kong to E.T., he gave shape to the invisible, turning technology into emotion and matter into poetry.
“To see his work now celebrated at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, thanks to the invaluable collaboration of Cinecittà and the support of the Italian Ministry of Culture, is a moment of profound pride and gratitude. It means recognizing that his vision, made of ingenuity, humanity, and wonder, continues to inspire the imagination of those who love cinema and art in all their forms.”.
Lucia Borgonzoni, Undersecretary of State to the Italian Ministry of Culture, stated: “We are immensely proud of the extraordinary enthusiasm in the United States surrounding the celebration of one of Italy's most illustrious artists on the centenary of his birth. Honouring Carlo Rambaldi through an initiative such as this underscores his profound contribution to world cinema. The history of cinema owes much to his ability to transform imagination into forms and features never before seen on screen—a unique blend of technical mastery and creative genius that has filled generations of viewers with wonder”.
Reflecting on their long-time collaboration, Dario Argento recalled: “We met on my first movie, and we worked together ever since. All my films were made with Carlo Rambaldi until the day he took the plane to the United States. It was a wonderful collaboration — a field of strange adventures. Together with his wife Bruna, they brought imagination to life in ways no one had done before”.
 |
| Carlo Rambaldi alien in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind |
Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at The Museum of Modern Art, pays tribute to Rambaldi’s legacy: “If movies are the realm of magic, then effects artists are the magicians. From a 40-foot Kong to blood-splattered horrors, to the kindest alien ever to visit earthly screens, Carlo Rambaldi created and built characters that will live on forever in cinematic history. Continuing the museum's embrace of the array of filmmaking talent, and thanks to the dedication of Cinecittà, we are thrilled to celebrate the work of this visionary artist”.
MoMA and Cinecittà Present: Carlo Rambaldi runs through Wednesday, December 24 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Another reason to visit MoMA is the Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination exhibition, which opens on Sunday, December 14 and runs through Friday, July 25, 2026.
Watch this space for a conversation with Carlo Rambaldi’s son, Vittorio Rambaldi, on the legacy of his father.
 |
| Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination exhibition at MoMA opens on Sunday, December 14. Photo: Anne Katrin Titze |
