“MoMA and Cinecittà present Carlo Rambaldi” will be held from December 10 to 24 at the Museum of Modern Art.
Carlo Rambaldi was the legendary Italian master of special effects, whose revolutionary creations—including E.T., Alien, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind—have marked the visual imagination of entire generations.
Born in 1925 in Vigarano Mainarda, near Ferrara, Carlo Rambaldi (1925–2012) studied painting and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna before entering the film industry in the 1950s.
To mark the centenary of Carlo Rambaldi‘s birth, the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), in collaboration with Cinecittà, presents “Carlo Rambaldi”, a major retrospective dedicated to the Italian master of special effects, three-time Oscar winner and creator of E.T., who changed the way we imagine and tell stories in cinema forever.
From December 10 to 24, 2025, MoMA will screen 15 films spanning Rambaldi’s entire career: from Italian to Hollywood productions, including new restorations by Cinecittà of Dario Argento’s Profondo Rosso (opening the retrospective, digitally restored in 4K), Extracted from the secret archives of the police of a European capital, Checkmate, and Frankenstein ’80. Alongside these are his legendary creations for King Kong, Alien, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Dune, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Barbarella, and other titles that have marked the collective imagination.
Rambaldi’s career bridges Italian auteur cinema and Hollywood: an artist capable of combining sculpture, engineering, and storytelling, anticipating modern animatronics and transforming technology into emotion. From giant dragons to space monsters to the sweetest alien in cinema history, his creatures continue to speak to audiences of all ages.
While many of his contemporaries relied on optical tricks and miniatures, Rambaldi was a pioneer of fully articulated animatronic systems based on anatomical accuracy and hydraulic precision. His process required months of study and combined the mastery of a sculptor with mechanical engineering.
“For my father, cinema was never just entertainment, but a bridge between dream and reality,” recalls Daniela Rambaldi, President of the Carlo Rambaldi Foundation. “Seeing his works celebrated at MoMA today means recognizing a vision that combines ingenuity, humanity, and wonder and continues to inspire those who love cinema and art.”
Lucia Borgonzoni, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Culture, said:
“We are immensely proud of the extraordinary enthusiasm in the United States for the celebration of one of Italy’s most illustrious artists on the centenary of his birth. Honoring Carlo Rambaldi through an initiative such as this highlights his profound contribution to world cinema. The history of cinema owes much to his ability to transform imagination into forms and appearances never before seen on screen—a unique combination of technical mastery and creative genius that has filled generations of viewers with wonder.“
Reflecting on their long collaboration, Dario Argento recalled:”We met on my first film, and we have 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 land of extraordinary adventures. Together with his wife Bruna, they brought imagination to life in ways no one had ever done before.”
Rajendra Roy, Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at the Museum of Modern Art, pays tribute to the legacy of Rambaldi: “If cinema is the realm of magic, then special effects artists are magicians. From a twelve-meter-tall Kong to blood-soaked horrors to the gentlest alien ever to appear on Earth’s screens, Carlo Rambaldi created and built characters destined to live forever in the history of cinema. In continuing the museum’s commitment to showcasing talent in cinema, and thanks to the dedication of Cinecittà, we are thrilled to celebrate the work of this visionary artist.”
Daniela Rambaldi, President of the Carlo Rambaldi Foundation, reflects on her father’s legacy: “For my father, cinema was never just entertainment, but a bridge between dream and reality. Through his creatures, from Kong to E.T., he gave shape to the invisible, transforming technology into emotion and matter into poetry. Seeing his work celebrated today at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, thanks to the invaluable collaboration of Cinecittà and the support of the Ministry of Culture, is a moment of deep pride and gratitude. It means recognizing that his vision, made up of ingenuity, humanity, and wonder, continues to inspire the imagination of those who love cinema and art in all their forms.”
During his career, Rambaldi received three Academy Awards for King Kong (1976), Alien (1979), and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), as well as numerous international awards. In 2025, he was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which is scheduled to be unveiled in 2026: a further sign of a legacy that is destined to last over time.
The MoMA retrospective follows international tributes organized for the centenary, including “The Man Who Made Creatures” at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, promoted by the Ministry of Culture (MiC) and Cinecittà. Together, these initiatives celebrate Rambaldi as a symbol of themeeting between Italian craftsmanship and global innovation.
The exhibition is co-organized by Rajendra Roy, Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, and Francisco Valente for MoMA’s Department of Film, and by Camilla Cormanni, Paola Ruggiero, and Marco Cicala for Cinecittà, in collaboration with the Fondazione Culturale Carlo Rambaldi, which is committed to preserving and disseminating his artistic archive and supporting new generations of creators through the Rambaldi Lab.
For the complete screening schedule and ticket information, visit moma.org/film.
