Official Selection
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
“Your favorite cooking show is back: cooking and classical music in just one program! In this episode, chef Jean-Paul is going to prepare an unexpected delicacy… stay tuned!”
BIO
Daniel Go is an Australian independent director.
NOTE REGIA
Favoletta ericina is a cinematic tale about the magical atmosphere in the ancient Sicilian village Erice. In this short film, a sweet typical of the place seems to be the cause of an enchantment attracting locals and visitors on the hill while a quirky detective is on the hunt for the original recipe.
All actors, except for the main character, are real inhabitants of Erice, engaged in what could be defined an experimental work of community cinema.
BIO
Andrea Marchese (Caltanissetta, 1984) is a director and visual artist.
Andrea has lived in Ferrara, Paris, Toulouse, Rome and Palermo, where he graduated in Performing Arts and Media Studies, and lives and works between Sicily and the rest of Europe. Through cinema and photography, and a sense of absurdity and irony, he gives life to an intimate reality whose logical boundaries get blurred, leaving room for a poetic vision of shapes. Melancholy, imagination, absurdity, irony and esthetic elegance are the core elements of his work.
SYNOPSIS
An enjoyable mockumentary accompanies us in the life of Khris Kozac, a professional “food dealer”.
BIO
Jamirik Mclead is a filmmaker, photographer, editor and graphic designer living in Dallas, Texas. His production ranges from feature films to documentaries and commercials.
SYNOPSIS
Arianna is getting ready to spend her Christmas Eve with the whole family, but everything isn’t quite what it seems: her situation is much more complicated than her loved ones can imagine. On one side, there is a need to keep a secret, on the other side, there is silence and lack of understanding from the family.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
The idea of this short film comes from the collaboration with psychotherapist Fabio Meloni, addressing the issue of eating disorders with the aim of raising awareness among the audience. The purpose is not to take a firm stand on such a complex and multifaceted issue, but rather to show the two sides of the same coin. On one side, there is the need of Arianna, an anorexic girl, to keep her problem from her family; on the other side, there is a family that hides, behind a façade of well-being and perfection, its incapacity to relate and cope with the problem. The setting is a Christmas Eve dinner, an apparently enjoyable opportunity for family dialogue where the true protagonist is food.
BIO
Alessandro Marano graduates in Juridical Studies at the Roman university “Roma Tre”, where he obtains a Master’s Degree in International and Comparative Law in March 2010. In 2005 and 2008, he attends a range of law courses at the “Carlos III” University of Madrid. His theatrical training starts in 2001, with the acting studies at the “Jobel Teatro“, under the guidance of Lorenzo Cognatti and Marinella Montanari. In 2008 he obtains a diploma from the acting school for professional actors “Teatro Azione”, run by Cristiano Censi and Isabella del Bianco. He delves into the stage movement elements working with “Dynamis teatro“, a theatrical company directed by Andrea De Magistris, and then he concentrates on the principles of theatrical biomechanics with Andrea Pangallo and the “Centro Internazionale di Biomeccanica teatrale di Mejerchol’d” under Gennadi Nikolaevic Bogdanov. In 2010 he starts studying Commedia dell’Arte attending workshops by Valeria Campo, Andrea Pangallo, Giangiacomo Colli, and Edoardo Nucciatelli. In Madrid, he attends a cinematographic interpretation course at the “NAI” center directed by Iñaki Aierra. Later on, he begins studying the figure of the clown attending the permanent laboratory run by the master Vladimir Olshansky (Cirque du Soleil) and collaborating with the INCA (International Network for Culture and Arts) group, taking part in several European workshops and projects in Spain, Turkey and Italy. His training continues with the workshop on “Pedagogy of expression” (based on Orazio Costa’s miming method) led by Professor Gilberto Scaramuzzi, and the latter’s Master Class on Luigi Pirandello. He then goes back to Madrid to attend a course on acting and script analysis led by John Strasberg. As an actor, he appears in “Romeo e Giulietta”, “Sogno di una notte di mezza estate” and plays the role of Arlecchino in “Piccola Fantasmagoria” directed by da Andrea De Magistris, with whom he stages “Parte offesa“, “Le viole“, and “La sconosciuta“. Directed by Francesca Rizzi, he stages “Da Sofocle a Dario Fo“, “La morte della Pizia” and “L’Antigone, while under the direction of Giancarlo Fares he brings on stage “Rien à faire…Rien à dire“. He acts in “Saudades, in memoria di Antonio Tabucchi” and “Kafka dream” with Teresa Pedroni and participates in the Saludecio Festival with “C’era una volta un pellegrino” and “Presenze nell’antica strada” (Festival Casola Valsenio). As a member of the “Calinea Teatro” company, he stages “Peter Pan” and “La Fiaba dell’erba voglio“. As a teacher, starting 2008, he leads theatrical laboratories in some Roman elementary schools, among wich “Carlo Collodi”, “Istituto comprensivo Tor de Schiavi”, “San Giovanni Battista”, “Istituto comprensivo Piazza D. Sauli”, “Due ottobre 1870”, “Santa Beatrice”, “Madonna della Neve”, and “Istituto comprensivo Pietro Maffi”. He also hosts some theatrical training workshop for teachers at the “Liceo Democrito” in Rome. Since 2010, he is hosting theatrical workshops for children, teens and adults at the theatre “La Fonte di Castalia” and for the acting school “Teatroavista“. Starting 2013, he takes part as a theater trainer to European projects “Ciak si lavora” (Zurigo), “Ciak si lavora 2” (Benevento), “Art@Work” (Roma), and “ImmigrAzione” (Svizzera). From 2015 to 2018, he hosts theater art therapy workshops at the international organization “Don Luigi Di Liegro“. As a director, he stages “Next stop Godot“, “Trappola per topi“, “Les Prive du Cabaret“, “Palla al piede“, and “Caccia a Bacterius”. In 2019, in collaboration with psychologist Fabio Meloni, he starts a project to raise awareness on eating disorders and writes and directs the short films “Principessa” and “Fuor d’acqua”.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
A young couple on their first date. She, the heiress of a famous gourmet restaurant, has prepared something memorable. The couple seems to have the same tastes, from animals’ insides to… something very unexpected.
BIO
Theatre and film director Pablo Fritzler has several works to his credit, among which his recent and first feature film “El Bosque de los Sometidos”. He is currently director and producer at MISIL Produzioni.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
“Ho Fame” is the result of the psychological violence between the society’s established reality and the individual’s mental fragility. “I wanted this short film to represent an act of rebellion against the individual’s dependence, along with all the difficulties that this rebellion entails. In my vision, the healing from this pathology is a process to be tackled step by step”. The main character of the film accompanies us on this difficult, yet possible journey.
BIO
The director was born in 1997 in Cosenza, and in his early life cinema soon became a magic relief to detach himself from society, a futuristic escape from the surrounding reality. From the age of eighteen, he is an active screenwriter focusing on thrillers with a social background. He is the producer of a series centered around dreams and psychology, “Fear of the Mind”. He has directed some music clips for national artists. “Ho fame” is his first short fiction film.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
IL LUCIAIUOLO is a short documentary about the ancient art of fishing. The documentary is set in Procida and is enhanced by the fascinating narration provided by Giulio Balducci, who helps the audience enter a magical atmosphere.
BIO
Regarded as an eclectic artist boasting a unique style, Joe Nappa has collaborated with clients such as L’Oreal Australia, Flume and Stereosonic. His production features more than 2000 works, ranging from commercials to television and visual effects, that made him one of the leading independent video maker operating in Australia.
SYNOPSIS
Winter 2175. Zélie tries to convince Iris to change her diet”. The goal of this short film is to give the audience an unbiased view on the evolution of the concept of diet and nutrition, gently proposing some “food” for thought.
BIO
Lea Rouaud is a young director with already several music videos and short films in her portfolio. Lea has also directed about fifty sketches for the web. Currently, she works as an assistant director for Warner, Sony and Universal. In the past, she has collaborated with IDZ produzioni, Webedia, and Canal+.
SYNOPSIS
Mico Torre has been hired to kill a witness, preventing him to testify in a trial. In carefully planning the assassination, he chooses the apartment of playboy Lanfranco Giussani as his sniper perch, as it is located in front of the court’s entrance. He therefore seizes Giussani, who is about leave for a “pleasure” trip, and takes over his house, counting on the fact that he will not be bothered by the neighbors, who think Giussani is away. During the wait the killer comes to know the habits of his hostage, and, while overlooking his vices, he cannot tolerate the fact that he is lying to his old mom and has not honored her birthday, besides neglecting the chili peppers she had lovingly prepared for him. Mico eats all of them. The morning after, as he sets up with his gun at the window, he starts feeling sick and has to run to the bathroom, screwing up the whole operation. The porter, alerted by the neighbors who have heard suspicious moaning from the apartment, calls the police, and they catch him in the bathroom.
Notes:
The project’s aim is to bring to the screen a novel by Giorgio Faletti, one of the most appreciated Italian writers. The short film takes the opportunity to describe food and territory in an original manner, mixing Faletti’s two favorite genres: thriller and humor. The experienced director is Dario Piana, who has been friends with Giorgio. The film is set in his hometown, Asti, and the production, the cast and the crew are almost all coming from the same territory, trying to make this short film a first step in creating a network for future projects and foster Asti as a production hub and location.
BIO
Dario Piana. Upto 1984 Dario drew comics and storyboards. He has shot more than 650 commercials throughout the world. He directed two films “The deaths of Ian Stone” (2006), and “The lost boys 3” (2009). He wrote and directed an interactive 3D 9-minute show featuring animated characters for one of the greatest theme parks in Europe and also boasts some scripts for the television and the silver screen as well. One of his commercials is exhibited at the Louvre museum, in the advertising section.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
Mancacioasa is a very personal exploration of the concept of “Fat Shaming”. The work is focused on the personal thoughts that any human being, who has been struggling with the problem of obesity, has all his life. “Mancacioasa” is a Romanian word which affectionately describes children who really enjoy eating.
BIO
Roxana, a very young independent filmmaker, was born in Romania and moved to Montreal, Canada, as a child. Growing up in a multicultural environment, she developed her directorial vision precisely around the transversality of language and the acceptance of diversity. Currently, she is completing her course of study at the Concordia University of Montreal. She has already directed several short films.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
My grandma, Judaism, the candles, the magic, the words. Buenos Aires. Fear, passion and memory.
Drawing on my roots and memories, in “My Queen” I try to recreate the atmosphere of Shabbat dinners in my family.
BIO
Marlene Grinberg is a director and a screenwriter. Marlene has studied at the University of Buenos Aires. She has directed the short films “Todas Mis Lolas”, selected to compete at the Shortfilm Corner of Cannes Festival 2018, “Partitura”, and “Medievales”.
Currently, she is working at her first feature film, “Tres Tiempos”.
SYNOPSIS AND DIRECTOR’S NOTE
The setting is a small provincial town. A local newspaper reporter visits the young and famous eco-activist heroine Carla Cocci to interview her on the unusual accident that led her to blindness. Through her story, the moments immediately preceding this tragic event are recreated.
The idea behind the short film stems out of two needs: on one side, the need to unmask the false appearance adopted by people searching for the acceptance of the masses; on the other side, the need to experiment a type of storytelling that envisages the overlap of different timelines, using the theme of the “double” as a narrative expedient.
The protagonist Carla Cocci is a greenie, always very careful at promoting a healthy and admirable life style starting with her food choices, but without actually believing in these principles. “We are what we eat”: Feuerbach was right, but in a society where appearing is more important than being, it may happen that one eats in order to appear someone else.
BIO
After obtaining a high-school diploma in classical education at Liceo Classico Dante Alighieri of Latina, Francesco Bianco (Latina, September 7, 1995) attends the faculty of Literature and Philosophy at the Roman university La Sapienza, specializing in Literature, Music and Performing Arts. As a lover of cinema and music, early in his formative years he realizes some music videos for the songs he himself writes and performs. Due to his admiration for the cult horror movies of the ’70s-’80s-‘90s, he debuts in 2016 with Short Scream, a low-budget, self-produced short film which is a tribute to filmmaker Wes Craven. After some months, he starts working at his next short film, Final Cut?, also self-produced and completed in February 2017. The short movie is selected for the FIPILI horror film festival of Livorno. In the fall of 2017, he directs Tormento, another horror movie which again is selected for the FIPILI horror film festival in April 2018 and becomes one of the finalists, while in December of the same year gets listed in the short list of the Sapienza Short Film Fest. In 2019, he writes the dark comedy Occhio alla Spesa.
SYNOPSIS
Sara’s summer holiday assignment is to care after the small tomato plant entrusted to her by the school. However, her family lives in an apartment, so she decides to grow it in the unauthorized vegetable garden that her grandparents have set up in a disregarded piece of land between the city and the countryside…
BIO
Maria Conte graduated in Geographical and Anthropological Science at the University of Florence and is currently completing her master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology in Venice. While graduating, she developed an interest for photography (The Darkroom Academy, Florence) and audiovisual. Her mission is to explore environmental, social and anthropological issues through photography and audiovisual, with a focus on the relationship between the man and the environment. With this aim, she made Percorsi Umidi, Terre di Mezzo and Dove Nuotano i Caprioli.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
I wanted to look into the themes of fatphobia and fatshaming within the school environment. Teenage years bring enormous changes and questions, as well as the birth of first loves and the consolidation of friendships. It was important for me to show these themes through the eyes of the protagonist, who lives through difficult years.
SYNOPSIS
Theo is an overweight high school student who eats without thinking. He is subjected to constant bullying by his schoolmates, and never seems to rebel. In the short film we tell the day when Theo will finally raise his voice.
BIO
Gautier Blazewicz was born in 1997 in Paris where he grew up and trained. He starts studying cinema during high school, where he will direct his first short film Frères. He studied acting at the Paris Marais School and, upon graduation, began working on his second project as a director, T GROS, co-produced by 13 Productions and Options Productions. The film is also shot thanks to the collaboration of Talents en Court du Jamel Comedy Club and France 2, the second channel mosti important important one in French television. The short has been screened in over 30 film festivals.
SYNOPSIS
A tale about old age and the passing of time, narrated through a plate of spaghetti with clams, in winter.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
This little work – more of an art video (which is what I deal with) or of a docu-film than a real short film – came about by chance. Just before Christmas Eve in 2018, my grandfather got so sick that he nearly died. On Christmas Day, I went to visit him in the seaside resort where he lives, carrying my little reflex camera with me in order to create a memory of him. This work was made in three hours.
“Vongole in inverno” is divided into 3 parts: in the first part, through an old, abandoned place – actually a hotel my grandfather used to frequent when he was young – I tried to metaphorically describe his life story, strongly bound to winter clams fishing. In this part I have inserted myself as him when he was a boy.
In the second part, I have inserted some videos mad in a distant Christmas day, with the whole family gathered around his table.
In the last part, I used documentary style to film him soon after his illness, while he eats his plate of pasta with clams.
BIO
Andrej Chinappi, born in 1992, is of Italian-Russian origin. He graduated in Literature and Philosophy, and since 2014 is the editor of the paper magazine “Il Bestiario degli italiani”. After working in France as a screenwriter for Radio France, he obtained a master in film direction at the Scuola Holden di Torino. In 2018, he debuted with his first work, “Infanzia”, a tribute to Russian filmmaker Tarkovskij. In 2019, he created the video installation “Casa del tempo”, which has been displayed in several festivals, and won the MarteLive 2019 award in the art videos section. In the same year, his short film “Sanpietro” was presented at the official international selection of Rome Film Festival. With “Radio Terra”, he won the “Audience Award” at the 48h Film Project of Rome. He works as assistant director.
SYNOPSIS
If you develop an eating disorder when you are already thin, you go to the hospital. If you develop an eating disorder when you are not, you are a success story. The short film narrates the story, through metaphors, investigating the sense of isolation that an eating disorder causes.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
The short film, made completely independently, is inspired by the direct experience of the author / director Abby Thompson, and investigates the sense of absolute isolation caused by eating disorders. Your own distorted inner voice is your only friend in an isolated surrounding, where you can’t find any holds to re-emerge.
BIO
Abby Thompson is a young American director. When the fat girl gets skinny is her first short film, which was a huge success with audiences all over the world.