INTERNATIONAL JURY

BEST FILM

Until the sun dies, Jonas Brander (Colombia 2023)

For the ability to hold together the uniqueness and tenacity of two characters, Albeiro Camayo and Luz Marina Bernal, defenders of human rights and indigenous rights, taking us, through their stories, into one of the most violent and least told about recent history, with an extraordinary immersive force in post-conflict Colombia.

BEST SHORT DOC

City of poets, Sara Rajael (Netherland 2024)

Personal archives meet the story and the history of the country in a utopian and metaphorical way. The use of an imaginary city allows us to understand a very critical political moment in modern-day Europe. The transition of the voiceover from English to Farsi as the film shifts to an intimate dimension is very effective: powerful and touching to feel the gradual loss of freedom as the wind changes direction.

BEST PHOTOGRAPHY

2G, Karim Sayad (Switzerland 2023)

The photography captures the characters, their poses, the atmospheres of the desert with simple but extremely calibrated images, creating an internal movement always measured on the size of the characters and giving aesthetic unity to the story of the film without distractions.

BEST DIRECTION

2G, Karim Sayad (Switzerland 2023)

For the ability to create an excellent mix of images, sounds and characters, providing a complete picture of a forgotten region. The director knew the answer to the fundamental question of directing: where to place the camera and above all at what distance.

SPECIAL MENTION

Tempo d’attesa, Claudia Brignone (Italy 2023)

An intimate and sincere story on the theme of motherhood and birth. Through a benevolent and welcoming gaze, space is created for an exchange on feelings and issues still shrouded in modesty and social pressure.

BEST EDITING

Neirud, Fernanda Faya (Brazil 2023)

A compelling story that uses archives in an intelligent and sensitive way to tell a secret and intimate story that allows us to talk and reflect about the status of women and the history of Brazil.

BEST SOUND AND SOUNDTRACK

The Soil and the Sea, Daniele Rugo (Lebanon, United Kingdom 2023)

The film begins with underwater sounds of bubbles and movements, almost as if to introduce “emotional themes” that will develop throughout the film. Music, sounds designed and integrated perfectly into the scene, manage to bring out even that unseen part, that underlying suffering that has never been shouted out.

ENEL GREEN POWER AWARD | OIKOS SECTION

Enel Green Power awards the docmentary film “Ground Zero. Self-portrait of an ocean abuser” by David Gaspar Gaspar for the ironic and biting ability to talk about a burning issue such as ocean pollution and even more for having managed – starting from the example of the protagonist – to stimulate in the audience the spirit of identification, reflection and desire for changing. We appreciate the language and narrative technique with which the director tells a story of constant evolution, and which highlights how every single gesture contains within itself a powerful and revolutionary force. The strength of one: of the single individual, of thought, of behaviour capable of changing the lives of all of us.

SOLE LUNA UN PONTE TRA LE CULTURE AWARD

Jump out, Nika Šaravanja (Italy, Belgium, Croatia 2023)

In a historical moment marked by conflicts, natural disasters and violations of fundamental rights, Jump Out manages to convey a message of hope and positive energy and demonstrates how young generations are able to face great challenges and improve their living conditions.

AUDIENCE PRIZE

Api, Luca Ciriello (Italy, 2023)

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS JURY

Feature section

The High School Student Jury, Liceo Scientifico Internazionale, Educandato Statale Maria Adelaide Palermo III, coordinated by their teacher Vitalba Valenti, by a large majority, recognizes Tempo d’Attesa by Claudia Brignone as the best feature film with the following motivation:

• For the profound reflection on birth, on being a parent today and on the path that makes a woman a mother, through its psychological implications, responsibility and waiting for the happy event.
• For the capacity to express the need to create a community which becomes a real necessity in the lives of many women who meet in a circle and who remain linked by the common thread of procreation.

The strength of the feature film lies in the intense emotions told by the strong voice of the women, from different social backgrounds and contexts, but united in the same challenging passage of their lives, in the tangle of lives in which the experience of pregnancy becomes a possibility for research and personal transformation.

NEW CITIZENSHIP JURY

Short doc Section

The Nuove Cittadinanze Jury, made up of Lamin Drammeh, Ousman Drammeh, Selvarny Moddly Chetty, Mohamed Lamin Sheriff, Deran Shiya Joseph Stani, decrees the winner of the Short docs section Anita, lost in the news, by Behzad Nalbandi (Iran 2023), with the following motivation:

For the coherence between text and images, for the excellent editing, for the strong emotional impact Anita, lost in the News brings a message that deeply touches the hearts of all of us: taken from a true story, it tells of an Iranian family, of its hopes, its dreams and sacrifices, of the harsh trials it faces, becoming an example that applies to all the people less fortunate than us who are on the other side of the sea. It tells of what extremes parents can go to in order to create a better future for their children and loved ones, to the point of entrusting their lives into the hands of unscrupulous individuals whose sole aim is to cynically take advantage of the needs of others.   

We were very impressed by the fact that imaginative characters created with newspaper were able to reach our hearts and represent with incredible force a reality that the world we live in mostly continues to ignore. The emotion of little Anita, the protagonist of the short film, who tells her story in first person, is the emotion of all of us.

The Nuove Cittadinanze Jury also gives a special mention to Heavy metal, by Edward Knowles and Timo Bruun (Germany, Jordan 2023) for the strength with which it tells the dream of three girls in a society in which women struggle to find their own public space, their determination and passion, their ability to make their way and gain the trust of some against the prejudices of most.

CINEMATOGRAPHE.IT AWARD
out of competition / Sicilia Doc

The Cinematographe.it award for the best film of “Sicilia Doc” section goes to  Che ore sono by Marta Basso and Tito Puglielli for having had the courage to deal, with honesty and authenticity, such a peculiar and sometimes mistreated topic, narrating and showing mental distress through a realism that is not at all artificial, deeply imbued with sweetness, fragility, empathy and even irony. A film that never forgets to leave a smile on our lips. Isn’t it enough?

Special mention

The Cinematographe.it special mention goes to La ricomparsa delle lucciole by Cristiano Giamporcaro, with the hope that a feature film will be born from this medium-length film. The reappearance of the fireflies is a magical and poetic tale, an archaic song of a beautiful, bursting Sicily, a silent work that takes the spectator into a lyrical prodigy.