Archive for category: News 2022

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