Season’s Greetings

Best wishes to all of you from ShorTS IFF! Thank  you so much for having been with us during this year.

Apply now for ShorTS Development & Pitching Training 2023

ShorTS Development & Pitching Training aims to discover, accompany – supplying all the necessary theoretical-practical tools during the crucial stage from the idea to writing the script – and launch talents working along the route leading from Jerusalem to Trieste, while exploring the countries part of the cycle more in detail.

Following the success of the first edition, we will continue in the same direction while further enhancing the part of the workshop dedicated to the development of the idea, in order to take all the projects to a high-quality level at the pitching. The results of collective sessions and the dynamics of collaboration between participants are key elements which will make sure we are on the right path. Once again multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary exchanges and interactions will play an essential role during the workshop, which is meant to be not only professional training but a proper journey to explore and reflect on the importance and the richness cinema may have in our world today.

Applications are open from 1 december 2022 to 1 march 2023. The complete regulations and the application form may be found here.

ShorTS International Film Festival 2023 calling

Entries for the 24th ShorTS International Film Festival are now open, with important new ideas announced. 

Entries are now open for the competitions of the 24th ShorTS International Film Festival to be held in Trieste from 1 to 8 July 2023. The Festival, organised by Associazione Maremetraggio with its president Chiara Valenti Omero and under the artistic direction of Maurizio di Rienzo, is to continue its variegated path through the world of short films, proposing new segments for specialist and audience juries, confirming the focus on a virtual narrative and highlighting the merits of some of the leading figures, not just Italian, in feature films.

The innovations mainly concern the historic Maremetraggio section, which is to present 50 shorts from all over the world of recent quality production, either not yet shown or circulated to some extent in Italy, on the evenings planned at Trieste’s Giardino Pubblico, which will compete for prizes awarded by an international jury and by the public. In addition to the historic Maremetraggio, from 2023 the Festival is to combine other key points for a new journey into the world of shorts: ShorTS Express will host 12 shorts of a maximum length of 5′ (excluding the end credits) competing for a prize awarded by the public; Italia in ShorTS will include 12 Italian-made shorts competing, among others, for the prize awarded by AMC – the Cinema Editing Association; while Eco-ShorTS will host 10 international shorts with an environmental theme and a prize awarded by the public. These four key sections will be curated by Massimiliano Nardulli. There will also be a panel-meeting on the international panorama of short film production, distribution and aesthetics, attended by directors and producers coming to Trieste.
Another new feature: the pre-opening of ShorTS IFF, scheduled for mid-June 2023 to coincide with the beginning of the municipal summer season of screenings at the Giardino Pubblico, will offer a non-competitive showcase of 10 EFA-European Film Academy short films, the Academy having honoured ShorTS IFF with this prestigious collaboration for years.

Remaining in Europe, the Focus dedicated each year by the Festival to one country’s filmmaking, after the success of the one on the Israeli shorts scene held this year, will turn the spotlight onto productions in Greece and will consist of two programmes: one with Greek shorts from the recent past, another with shorts from the most recent years, with VIP attendance to accompany these works.

As a function of the realisation of new shorts projects and the ability of makers and producers to present them to markets and pitch sessions at festivals around the world, the three-day ShorTS Development&Pitching Training, a workshop for five unreleased stories by directors and screenwriters, will be held in 2023, with scouting and curating by Massimiliano Nardulli.

Very young selectors and jury members of primary school age (6-10 years old) and middle school age (11-15 years old) will instead be involved in the well-established Shorter Kids’n’Teens section led by Manuela Morana, who will handle the choice of kids and teens, first selectors of the approximately 25 Italian shorts planned for the two competitions and later the very young jurors of this section. This enthusiastic pool of budding critics and audience members will be referred to the Trieste and Gorizia areas, with a view to Gorizia 2025 European Capital of Culture.

The area reserved for ShorTS Virtual Reality, a section curated by Antonio Giacomin, will be extended for a competition of 12 shorts that can be viewed with visors to experience individual viewing in a common logistical context. The jury will be made up of the actual audience watching. A themed panel and a technological apprenticeship workshop on this new form of film viewing are also planned.

The section dedicated to feature films, curated by Massimo Causo and Beatrice Fiorentino, will be transformed into Campolungo to accommodate the interaction between two makers ‘in progress’ who have already directed important shorts and at least one feature film, demonstrating their process and discussing their narrative work.

New ideas also for the ShorTS Comic Marathon curated by Francesco Maria Cappellotto (non-competitive section) in which ad hoc drawings by comic strip artists and aspiring comic strip artists will make up a short comic strip story-marathon inspired by topical moments in historic films.

ShorTS IFF will award the Premio Cinema del Presente to a director whose career is developing through its depth and impact, also internationally (winners so far are Alessio Cremonini, Saverio Costanzo, Alice Rohrwacher, Gabriele Mainetti). The Premio Prospettiva for a young actor or actress who is coming to the attention of critics (on the list among others are Alba Rohrwacher, Luca Marinelli, Michele Riondino, Michele Alhaique, Daphne Scoccia, Luka Zunic, Aurora Giovinazzo) and the Premio Interprete del Presente which was introduced last year and awarded to Teresa Saponangelo). All these awards involve a masterclass of the prize winners.

 


The complete regulations and submission procedures via Festhome or Filmfreeway may be found at the following link: https://www.maremetraggio.com/en/festival/submissions/

Films must be submitted on or before 28 February 2023.

The press release may be downloaded here.

 

ShorTS International Film Festival
24the Edition  | Trieste  1 – 8 July 2023
www.maremetraggio.com

 

The winners of the 23rd edition of ShorTS International Film Festival

 

MAREMETRAGGIO SECTION

Premio EstEnergy – Gruppo Hera
Best short film – 5.000 euro
(Jury members: Ella Kohn, Sameh Alaa and Nicolas Khabbaz)

Fantasma Neon by Leonardo Martinelli
(Brasil, 2021)

Motivation:
«A beautiful and painful social commentary that plays perfectly on
the rhythm of the life of its characters using a mix of genres, waving between realism and fantasy. A young fresh cinematic point of view depicting the chaotic reality of modern capitalism and its effect on the human spirit through a brilliant use of music and accurate cinematography.».


Special Mention

Techno, Mama by Saulius Baradinskas
(Lithuania, 2021)

Motivation:
«A non-classical coming of age story that tackles the family cold relations and the dream of moving forward. The film plays on two contradictory worlds and follows closely the struggle of its character and his escape through his favorite music that represents his only hope of reinventing the self.».

Warsha by Dania Bdeir
(Lebanon, France, 2022)

Motivation:
«For its very original approach in terms of theme and language in addition to its smart twists and choices of images and sounds. The film sheds light on the harsh influence of cultural prejudice and stereotypes with a very unique and powerful use of cinematic tools».


Premio AcegasApsAmga

Best Italian short film – 3.000 euro
(Jury composed by AcegasApsAmga and Gruppo Hera employees)

Lo chiamavano Cargo by Marco Signoretti
(Italy, 2021)

 

Premio Bazzara Caffè
Best short film as chosen by the audience

Branka by Ákos K. Kovács
(Hungary, 2021)

 

Premio AMC
Best editing in an Italian short film

Cromosoma X by Lucia Bulgheroni
(Italy, 2021)

Motivation:
«The effective changes of sound and rhythm sustain the narration of the story, ensuring the conservation of tensions and expectations.».

 

Premio Shorts TV
Best short film as chosen by the jury of Shorts TV

Homebird by Ewa Smyk
(United Kingdom, 2021)

Motivation:
«We’ve chosen to award this film for its poetic and direct story and ability to talk to everyone. With its expressive storytelling, this film is a reminder of the importance of self- belief whilst fully embracing own background and identity. Extensively, it’s also a beautiful poem that talks of the richness and beauty of all diversities.».

 

Premio MYmovies.it
Best Italian premiere as chosen by the audience

Barter by Ziba Karamali, Emad Araad
(Iran, 2021)

 

NUOVE IMPRONTE SECTION

Premio Nuove Impronte
Best feature film
(Jury members: Haider Rashid, Maria Roveran and Laura Samani)

Crai nou / Blue Moon by Alina Grigore
(Romania, 2021) 

Motivation:
«For the authenticity with which it recounts a family’s complex and painful reality, taking the side with a protagonist who at times is antagonistic to herself, we are forced to redefine the boundary between victim and perpetrator, and to ask ourselves the significance of family, loyalty, and sense of belonging».


Premio del pubblico
Best feature film as chosen by the audience 

Crai nou / Blue Moon by Alina Grigore
(Romania, 2021)


Premio SNCCI – Sindacato Nazionale Critici Cinematografici Italiani

Best feature film as chosen by the jury of the Italian Syndicate of Film Critics
(jury members: Giuseppe Gariazzo, Paola Olivieri and Ignazio Senatore)

Broadway by Christos Massalas
(Greece, France, Romania, 2021)

Motivation:
«A whirlwind of explosive people for which there is not place in this world. A space that becomes body and soul, giving a voice to contrasting and resonant emotions. A crossroads of images where cinema, theatre, musical and melodrama all merge together».

Special Mention

A Criança by Marguerite Marguerite de Hillerin and Félix Dutilloy-Liégeois
(France, Portugal, 2022)

 

SHORTER KIDS’N’TEENS SECTION 

Premio Shorter Kids
Best short film Kids

Saka sy Vorona/Cat and Bird by Franka Sachse
(Germany, 2021)


Premio Shorter Teens
Best short film Teens 

Stars on the Sea by Jang Seung-wook
(South Corea, 2021)


SHORTS VIRTUAL REALITY SECTION

Premio ShorTS Virtual Reality
Best VR short film as chosen by the audience – 2.000 euro

33/16 by Marco Fabbro
(Italy, 2022)

 

Premio Cinema del Presente 2022

Gabriele Mainetti

Premio Prospettiva 2022

Aurora Giovinazzo

Premio Attrice del Presente 2022

Teresa Saponangelo

Nuove Impronte

7 feature films will be in competition in the Nuove Impronte section curated by Beatrice Fiorentino with Massimo Causo

Shorter Kids’n’Teens selection

The 23 short films of the Shorter Kids’n’Teens section that the kids and teens will be able to enjoy and vote.

Tiger Boy

Extra – Premio Cinema del Presente 2022

Basette

Extra – Premio Cinema del Presente 2022

Presentation of the 23rd edition of ShorTS IFF!

Today the 23nd edition of ShorTS International Film Festival was presented during a press conference at the Casa del Cinema in Trieste, on zoom and live-streamed on Facebook.
Those present included Councillor Tiziana Gibelli for the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, the Cultural Attaché of the Israeli Embassy in Italy Dr. Maya Katzir, the Chief Rabbi rav Alexandre Meloni, Dr. Albino Belli for EstEnergy – Hera Group, Dr. Luciana De Mori for AcegasApsAmga – Hera Group and Dr. Silvia Risitano for Bazzara Caffè for the institutional greetings.
The president Chiara Valenti Omero and the artistic director Maurizio di Rienzo explained, together with all the curators of the festival, the very rich programme that distinguishes this new multifaceted edition of ShorTS. Thanks again to all those who took part and to all the festival’s supporters.
We look forward to seeing you from 1 to 9 July at Giardino Pubblico, Teatro Miela and Casa del Cinema di Trieste!

Please download the press release here.

La regina delle nevi

Extra – Premio Bazzara Caffè