Patty Pravo, Agnieszka Holland and Laura Delli Colli among Women in Cinema winners
Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Patty Pravo, Agnieszka Holland, Andrew Haigh, Carmela Pace and Laura Delli Colli, President of Sngci are the awardees of the WiCA, an award conceived and created by Angela Prudenzi, Claudia Conte, Cristina Scognamillo, given yesterday at the Italian Pavilion. “At 15,” Patty Pravo recounted, ”I was already a free little girl. Soon a series will be released about me in the Rome of the Dolce Vita.” “It is an award that honors me even more,” said Delli Colli, ”because in film journalism there is no disparity. Seventy percent of us are women.”
Gina Lollobrigida Award
The first Gina Lollobrigida Award, a joint initiative of the Ministry of Culture and Cinecittà to remember one of the greatest interpreters of our cinema, has been assigned to Jago for his craft in sculpture. ‘Instead of a posthumous Golden Lion,’ says Undersecretary for Culture Lucia Borgonzoni, “we thought Gina would have liked an award, given every year with the Biennale, for young people”. Chiara Sbarigia, President of Cinecittà, said that this ‘multidisciplinary award is part of a living relationship between past and future’. Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco entrusted the winner with ‘the fantasy and joy of that Bersagliera’. Thrilled, Jago concluded: ‘Dealing with beauty is the true role of the creative person and art itself, dressing ourselves in beauty makes us civilised’.
Tiziana Leone
Three key appointments for our cinema
Three key appointments to make the relationship between audience and theatres closer: FICE’s Meetings of Cinema d’Essai (Lucca, from 30 September to 3 October), the Days of the Community Halls (Rome, from 9 and 10 November) and the Professional Days of Cinema (Sorrento from 2 to 5 December) organised by ANEC with ANICA, with the ambition that the 47th will be “the best edition“. The importance of the three events, presented yesterday at the Lido, was underlined by the presence of the President of the Biennale Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the Artistic Director of the Venice Film Festival Alberto Barbera, and the greeting of the Undersecretary of the Mic with responsibility for Audiovisuals, Lucia Borgonzoni, in the name of a ‘joint effort by the entire sector’. ‘For the creation of cinema,’ said Buttafuoco, ‘alongside the imaginary, there is a virtuous complicity of ingenuity, effort, and private commitment transmitted to the public. Barbera’s festival has identified the need to safeguard the art of cinema to find ourselves and support the industry’. ‘I tried to emphasise‘, Barbera added, ‘the importance of artists’ works that start from a shared idea. Now, the message is getting through, given the growth of young spectators at the festival. We will see the fruits of this in the coming seasons‘. ‘We must thank the exhibitors,’ Lucia Borgonzoni concluded, ‘for the growth of the audience attendance’.
Incontri del cinema d’essai (Meetings of arthouse cinema ) will increase the number of previews for exhibitors. It will be one of the features of the event that will take place in Lucca, organised by Anec’s General Manager and Cinetel President, Simone Gialdini and Fice’s new President Giuliana Fantoni. Antonio Albanese, Daniele Luchetti and Anna Ferraioli Ravel will be honoured during the convention. David di Donatello’s streaming platform will be available for remote courtesy screenings. The goal for this year’s Professional Days of Cinema in Sorrento, led by Anec president Mario Lorini and ANICA Distributors and Publishers Union President and director of 01 Distribution Luigi Lonigro, is the “Next Generation”. Over 1,600 professionals are expected to attend from 2 to 5 December. The focus will be on how to increase the number of young moviegoers. The programme also includes meetings between the Italian and French industries and the traditional Golden Tickets. Two days of workshops, 9 and 10 November in Rome, for the SDC Days, the Days of the Community Halls, celebrating 75 years of ACEC, following Pope Francis’ dictates for cultural operators: “creativity, vision, communion“.
Alessandra Farro
To a Chinese artist the first Reply A.I. Film Festival
To Dear Me by Chinese director Gisele Tong, inspired by Yan Xiaoxuan’s animated short film Liebestraum, is the winner of the first edition of the Reply A.I. Film Festival, a competition of short films made with Artificial Intelligence conceived by Reply, a leading international group in the creation of new business models enabled by AI and Digital Media. The awards event, organized with Mastercard at the Priceless lounge of the Excelsior Hotel, saw One Way by Russian Egor Kharlamov in second place and Jinx, by Indian director Mansha Totla, in third place.
The 12 finalist films, chosen from more than 1,000 short films made by more than 2,000 authors from over 59 countries, were developed around the theme Synthetic Stories, Human Hearts. They are the ones that most emphasized the encounter between human talent and technology.
“The thing that fascinated me is that none of these films would have been feasible without the use of AI,” said Rob Minkoff (director of The Lion King), who chaired the international jury, composed of Adam Kulick, Caleb & Shelby Ward, Denise Negri, Filippo Rizzante, our director Flavio Natalia, Julien Vallée & Eve Duhamel, Monica Riccioni and Paul Trillo.
“The winners of the Reply AI Film Festival,” said Filippo Rizzante, CTO of Reply, ‘demonstrate how Artificial Intelligence enables the creation of new narratives, innovative and visually appealing content, while keeping the human component, the vision, the heart and soul of a film essential,’ while Luca Fiumarella, Head of Marketing Italy at Mastercard, emphasized: “We are pleased to have hosted in Venice the awards event of the Reply AI Film Festival, a competition that enhances the creativity of young film talents, offering them a unique opportunity for comparison and expression.” For Gisele Tong, her film is for “women who have scars and lack of love: save your past self and empower your present self: remember to love yourself and give yourself a warm embrace.” The winning shorts and finalists can be viewed at aiff.reply.com
Gender equality in cinema? “In 20 years.”
True gender equality in the audiovisual world will not be achieved for 20 years, and that is an optimistic assumption. But things are getting better. That was the finding of the panel on equality in the film industry convened by the Biennale, Università Cattolica, Eurimages, Direzione Generale Cinema e Audiovisivo, Vision Distribution and Women in Film, Television & Media Italia. The encouraging fact is that the number of women in film is steadily rising, but the percentages are still not balanced.
Alessandro Farro
