SICILIAMBIENTE FILM FESTIVAL – 2022 WINNERS
Short Film Special Mention
Don’t tell Anyone
Sahar Sotoodeh
The film conveys the courage to talk about a very difficult subject, a real taboo, especially in an Islamic country like Iran: sexual violence by a father toward his daughter. The quality of the film, exceptional acting, along with sparse and minimalist cinematography, all contribute to emphasizing the subject matter.
Documentary Film Special Mention
Chickens, virus and us
Filip Remunda
Documentary Film Special Mention
The director draws from his own family experience to narrate two topical issues: the coronavirus and intensive animal farming. The family journal, written with intelligent irony, becomes a metaphor for how to create a sustainable relationship between man and nature.
Animated Film Firs Award
1st Prize
THE SOLOISTS
di Mehrnaz Abdollahinia, Feben Elias Woldehawariat, Razahk Issaka, Celeste Jamneck, Yi Liu
Direction was able to interpret, through an accurate and skillful interaction of images and music, the theme of repression of freedoms and gender discrimination, emotionally involving the viewer in the different forms of resistance that the women, protagonists of the short film, enact. She was able to surprise the viewer by using animation with striking and effective scene changes on the storytelling level. She was able to condense emotions into music and communicate messages of hope in direct and immediate dialogues. She showed great sensitivity for such important, often ignored issues, enhancing the social role of women.
Animated Film Firs Award
2° Prize
Glory
di Charlotte Geysels
For effectively portraying the emotions and torments of a young bullfighter engaged in a confrontation that goes far beyond the savagery of bullfighting, drawing the viewer, through the use of flashbacks and music, into a narrative that is by no means unoriginal, of a family history marked by mourning and pain, and for shedding light on the issue of the spectacularization of violence and suffering, moving the audience’s conscience to reflect on the opportunity of keeping certain folk traditions alive.
“Short Film” Section
1st Prize
Lili Alone
di Zou Jing
“Lili Alone” is a female story that deals with universal issues such as poverty and motherhood, without neglecting the ethical implications of these issues. Aesthetically, the film is delicately and tastefully made.
“Short Film” Section
2° Prize
EMPIRIC
di Ioana Turcan
“Empiric” represents issues that are still being debated to this day, despite the fact that the short is set in the 1960s, under the Ceauçescu regime: abortion and disability. The setting and interpretation are noteworthy.
“Documentary” Section
1st Prize
Mother Lode
di Matteo Tortone
A poetic film, made even stronger by the black and white: the mine recalls the metaphor of the descent into the underworld and translates in modern language the myth of the labors of Sisyphus. The director uses the theme of the journey to research human existence: the use of the camera perfectly guides the audience on this journey.
“Documentary” Section
2° Prize
I’m so sorry
di Zhao Liang
A film with a refined and striking photographic language, that at the same time restores the restlessness of desolation and abandonment. It confronts us with the helplessness we feel coming to terms with the consequences of environmental disaster.
AAMOD Award
Mother Lode
di Matteo Tortone
“Mother Lode” for the filmmaker’s dedication to anthropological and territorial study, and for his ambitious application of the Cinema of the Real to places and a history, that poses questions precisely on the chasms and depths of ambition itself.
“Human Rights Award” by Amnesty International Italy
Heza
di Derya Deniz
The film traverses a devastated and abandoned territory. It tells the story of Hêza and the destruction of families and lives, their silent and painful absence. It also tells a story of resistance, rebirth and self-affirmation, and does so without falling into the celebratory rhetoric of the heroic fighter. Derya Denîz succeeds, by filming a few encounters and glances, in rendering past violence and fear but above all in celebrating the courage and solidarity of ordinary people plunged into a nightmare. Nadia Murad’s story comes to mind, another way of reacting to unimaginable suffering. Different paths that seek, still, by different means, justice and reparation for the Yazidi people.
The Audience Award
La scelta di Anne – L’Événement
di Audrey Diwan
“Greenpeace Award” by Greenpeace Italy
I’m so sorry
di Zhao Liang
A documentary reflecting on the consequences of nuclear power through the testimonies of the reallocated population of Fukushima and the voices of those who returned to the Chernobyl exclusion zone after the nuclear disaster. Touching stories told from an essential, first-person perspective leading us to reflect on the historical moment we are going through. The human dimension is told by the plight of the survivors of these nuclear disasters, the consequences of which are projected long into the future. A warning not to continue on with past mistakes.
“Special TTPIXEL Award”
Fili di memorie
di Marco Latina