From the 29th June to the 7th of July, in Trieste, it’s time of cinema with Maremetraggio, International Short Film Festival and Debut Feature Film Festival. Arrived to its 13th edition and on the strength of its experience and success both in Italy and abroad, in 2012 the Festival will propose, once again, nine days dedicated to new promises of Italian and international cinema. Maremetraggio will screen the “best of the best” of European short films and the most significant Italian debut feature films. In addition to the marathon of screening there will also be conferences and meetings with actors/actresses and directors, special events, workshops, in-depth sections, cocktails and happenings with the participation of national and international film industry professionals. Maremetraggio also in 2012 will reconfirm itself as a festival dedicated to young cinema.

As well as last year, the festival will be enlivened by many guests, the most promising young talents together with the most important Italian and European film stars. Among the famous guests of the latest editions Sergio Rubini, Andrea Bosca, Michele Riondino, Veronica Pivetti, Francesca Inaudi, Marina Massironi, Christiane Filangieri, Luca Lucini, Elisabetta Rocchetti, Marco Rulli, Gianfelice Imparato, Michele Venitucci, Alba Rohrwacher, Giuseppe Battiston, Margherita Buy, Amanda Sandrelli, Laura Morante, Federico Moccia, Murray Abraham, Gillo Pontecorvo, Giuliano Montaldo, Paola Cortellesi, Valentina Cervi and many more.

Also for the 13th edition there will be two competitive sections: Maremetraggio and Ippocampo.

Moreover, thanks to the collaboration with the ancient European boat race Barcolana, from this edition another competition, “SopraSottoVento” (OverUndertheWind) will start.

For Maremetraggio section there will be in competition a selection of short films that in 2011 won at least one prize in one European or extra-European festival, facing a jury that will award the best of them the prize of 10.000 Euros.

That won’t be the only award in this section, though: there will also be the prize for the best Italian short film; the prize for the best animation short film; the prize for the best Italian editing; the audience award.

The Ippocampo Section will include Italian debut feature length films, especially those that have not been distributed. A number of awards are at stake in this section, too: three awards for the best debut film, best actor and best actress; the critics award; the “courage” award; the award for the best debut performance by an actor or actress; the audience award.

The new competition “SopraSottoVento” (OverUndertheWind) will instead be dedicated to the sail world and to the spirit of travelling the sea, but also to all the sports that use the clean energy of the wind as motive power. For the first time Maremetraggio will open, with this competition, to new media formats (shorts shot with the videophones or with new technologies) and will award, in this competition, the best amateur and the best professional short film.

All along Maremetraggio Festival supports young cinema and young film makers, that usually begin their professional career starting from short films and that can benefit by an important showcase to be known by the public and the film industry professionals. Moreover the directors taking part to the festival will have the possibility of attending workshops held by professionists and dedicated to new cinema technologies.

Last year’s “prospettiva” section on Italian actor Andrea Bosca was successfull, so this year too Maremetraggio will focus on an Italian rising star, focusing on him/her with a “prospettiva” to retrace his/her first steps in the cinema world and to imagine his/her future. The most significant films with him/her as protagonist or actor will be screened and the audience will have the chance to meet him and learn about his career so far and his future perspectives.

In addition to the meetings for the public there will also be encounters for professionals, during which there will be analyzed the hottest topics in cinema’s world, that will be also useful to create new collaborations and to help the circulation of ideas and the birth of new projects.

As in the past edition during Maremetraggio festival there will also be held some special events. Last year there were the presentation of “Tatanka”, a film dedicated to the world of boxing by Giuseppe Gagliardi Pivetti and the screening of “Mestieri difficili”, a short film by Manuel Fanni Canelles that mix video art and cinema language.

Finally, after last year’s successful experience and thanks to the enthusiastic reaction to this initiative by the detainees, once again the festival will be entering Trieste’s local prison with the “Oltre il muro” (Behind the wall) section. This year there will be screened the Italian shorts in competition for Maremetraggio 2012 section. The best short, according to a jury of detainees, coordinated by the director Davide Del Degan, will win the “Oltre il muro – Provincia di Trieste” prize.

Maremetraggio’s strong point keeps on being its location, Trieste, a border city which, thanks to its lucky geographic position between the Adriatic sea and the Carso plateau, represents the ideal framework for a celebration attracting more and more people every year, both from Italy and Eastern Europe. Maremetraggio will be spreading around different areas of the city, from the Grand Hotel Savoia Excelsior to the Open air summer theatre in the framework of the Giardino Pubblico (the city’s public garden), to the Miela Theatre. During the whole Festival an info point will be available at all times for our audience and guests.