MEDFILM FESTIVAL — 29th EDITION
MEDITERRANEAN CINEMA IN ROME
9 — 19 NOVEMBER 2023
Crowded theatre, intense and well attended evening at the Awards Ceremony of the 29th edition of the MedFilm Festival. The event dedicated to Mediterranean cinematography brought 70 films and 60 guests, representing 34 countries, to Rome, with a focus on Spanish cinema. MAXXI Museum – XXI century National Museum of Arts, Cinema Savoy, Museum MACRO, Palladium Theatre, La Sapienza University of Rome are the venues hosting the programme, which continues at MAXXI until 19 November and on Mymovies until 26 November, to take the films proposed by the festival even further and to an even wider audience. Screenings, professional meetings, masterclasses, meetings with young authors and film masters made this edition particularly rich and significant. The festival, directed by Ginella Vocca, succeeded in the feat of dialogue in a time of war
“Peace is a constant search, within us, beside us and far from us, beyond our goals. The tool par excellence for Peace building is listening and curiosity towards the other, within us, beside us, beyond our goals. This is the MedFilm festival, a free and participatory space where the individual and the community are at the centre of a knowledge and exchange process, a place from which everyone comes out changed, richer, more aware and therefore happier. A pattern that has accompanied my adult life, becoming in turn a parallel and possible life, a kind of faith in the value of beauty translated into Cinema. We look forward to the celebration of the 30th anniversary, armed, in a harsh present time, with the power of creativity, of art, the irrepressible need and engine of human existence”.
The hope is to continue to give strength and visibility to this area’s cinema talents, from film school students to the great authors, in a counterpoint capable of offering a vision of the Mediterranean as a place of great creative, artistic and industrial ferment, as confirmed by the success of MedMeeetings, the festival’s industry platform that offers Italian professionals further opportunities for cooperation within the virtuous international Euro-Mediterranean circuit. Many young people crowded the theatres and participated in the scheduled events, our commitment to always do better is for them. Thanks to the institutions, both national and international, that made this 29th stage possible, for an ever-new journey along the cultural shores of the Mediterranean.
OFFICIAL FEATURE FILM COMPETITION
The Jury of the Official Competition composed of Anna Ferzetti, Annalisa Camilli, Ilaria Macchia, Esmeralda Calabria and Carla Altieri has decreed:
❯ LOVE AND PSYCHE AWARD FOR BEST FILM:
DANCING ON THE EDGE OF A VOLCANO by CYRIL ARIS(Lebanon, 2023, 87′)
A documentary that is like a song of hope for a country that, muffled by tragedy, cannot succumb, but rather has the task, through art, to always get back on its feet. The characters, dialogues and scenes in this film promote a great drive towards the future that does not leave us indifferent, involves us and affects us all.
❯ SPECIAL JURY AWARD:
THE BURDENED by AMR GAMAL(Yemen, 2023, 91’)
An intense cross-section of Yemeni society told without emphatic tones, but with an essential and at the same time emotional style. Starting with the story of an educated and open-minded middle-class family, the film succeeds in telling the situation of a country at war, without exoticism or stereotypes. Filmed entirely in Aden, it also has the merit of giving access to the reality of an otherwise forgotten country.
❯ ARTISTIC EXPRESSION PRIZE:
THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES by ASMAE EL MOUDIR (Morocco, 2023, 97′)
A film that tells the director’s private story through a mixture of a realistic and a fictional register, which scene after scene combine with each other in an innovative and never gratuitous way, engaging the viewer in an intimate and profound tale.
❯ SPECIAL MENTION:
MARÍA VÁZQUEZ, protagonist of MATRIA by ÁLVARO GAGO (Spain, 2023, 99’)
For being able to interpret with intensity a magnetic character full of life. Vázquez has done extensive work on her body that makes her credible to the viewer, fills the screen with her presence, and is able to portray the plight of an independent and combative woman in a peripheral and abandoned area of Spain.
OFFICIAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION
The Jury of the International Short Film Competition, made up of 11 students from film schools in Morocco, Slovenia, Greece, France, Qatar, Tunisia, Spain, Algeria, Italy and inmates representing the four penitentiaries involved in the Methexis project (Rebibbia New Complex, Rebibbia Prison, Rebibbia Women’s Prison, Rebibbia Third House) has decreed:
❯ METHEXIS AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM:
LA VOIX DES AUTRES by FATIMA KACI (France, 2023, 30’)
For the perfection with which every smallest choice contributes to the construction of a touching story that cannot leave one indifferent. Every aspect, the direction, photography and editing are at the service of elegant and profound writing. Each element blends with the others organically: the simplicity of La voix des autres is not a limitation but an achieved goal and is striking in its power. Finally, for the incredible performance of Amira Chebli, who gives form on screen to a personal conflict, which is everyone’s and perhaps above all cinema’s own.
❯ CERVANTES ROME AWARD TO THE MOST CREATIVE SHORT FILM:
BACK by YAZAN RABEE (Syria, 2023, 7′)
For the originality with which it is transposed through dynamic editing and for the uniqueness of its dreamlike language. The risky choice of a faceless protagonist allows places to take over the narrative, which becomes bold and universal.
❯ SPECIAL MENTIONS FROM THE JURY:
THINGS UNHEARD OF by RAMAZAN KILIC (Turkey, 2023, 15′)
For the tenderness and lightness with which such a raw subject is treated. The narrative is essential, conducted with wisdom and an incredible visual flair.
THE KEY by RAKAN MAYASI (Palestine, 2023, 18′)
For the originality with which such an urgent topic is treated, through the use of genre, tension and the surreal element.
I PROMISE YOU PARADISE by MORAD MOSTAFA (Egypt, 2023, 25′)
For the poetry of its silences and for the incredible technical and artistic ability to compose the images of the film.
VALENTINA PEDICINI AWARD – BEST FIRST AND SECOND WORK
The jury of the Valentina Pedicini Prize, composed of Laura Samani, Astrid de Berardinis, Nolwenn Delisle decreed:
❯ BEST FILM:
THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES by ASMAE EL MOUDIR (Morocco, 2023, 97′)
The filmmaker has been able to stimulate a healing process through the creative recovery of a memory that is both individual and collective, and has done so by producing a cinematically spectacular documentary with a talent and directorial maturity surprising for a first work.
MEDFILM WORKS IN PROGRESS
The MedFilm Works in Progress Jury, composed of Jana Wehbe, Marco Spoletini, Fabrizio Mambro decreed:
OIM PRIZE (€10.000) to PASSING DREAMS by RASHID MASHARAWI (Palestine)
STADION VIDEO AWARD (€3.500) to FIDAN by AYÇIL YELTAN (Turkey)
The professionals participating in the MedPitching sessions decided ex aequo:
MEDFILM PITCHING AWARD (€1.000) to BLEACH by KALTRINA KRASNIQUI (Kosovo) and LOVE-45 by ANAS KHALAF (Syria)
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE
Riccardo Noury, spokesperson for Amnesty International, awarded the Amnesty International Human Rights Award of the 29th edition of the MedFilm Festival to:
ENDLESS BORDERS by ABBAS AMINI (Iran, 2023, 111’)
For the sparse, never unnecessarily violent, yet powerful fresco of an area criss-crossed by abuses and brutalities that flank and often overlap. As always, the most vulnerable people are those who suffer the most unbearable human rights violations and discrimination. As is often the case, hope lies in people finding the courage to stand up, to resist, to question hostile customs and realities and to fight for freedom, even risking their own lives.
WWF MEDFILM AWARD
The WWF jury, composed of Luca Ward, Alan Cappelli, Eleonora Mastropietro, awarded the WWF MEDFILM AWARD and the prize of €1.000 to:
SECADEROS by ROCIO MESA (Spain, 2023, 98’)
For the ability to narrate nature not as a place or context but as a sense of life, fleeing the temptation of the bucolic idyll. For the truthfulness of the actors, the style, and the ability to combine reality and dream dimension, against the backdrop of a crisis situation.
OTHER PRIZES OF THE 29TH MEDFILM FESTIVAL
UNIVERSITY JURIES
The University Jury made up of 40 students from the Universities of Rome: La Sapienza, Tor Vergata, UNINT-University of International Studies of Rome, UNIMED-Union of Mediterranean Universities, Luiss Business School, John Cabot University,has thus decreed for the Feature Film Section in Competition:
❯ BEST FEATURE FILM AWARD:
DANCING ON THE EDGE OF A VOLCANO by CYRIL ARIS (Lebanon, 2023, 87′)
Attempt at reality through fiction, relying on impeccable direction and relentless pace. Cyril Aris shows how conscious judgement and analysis of the power and meaning of art can arise from crisis. Sincere, fictional and archival images intersect, restoring dignity and hope to the Lebanese people. It is the real-time documentation of the work of a film crew, who through their footage, as if they were thoughts, revolutionised the way of observing a tragic reality, drawing from it inspiration and the constant need for rebirth.
❯ MOST CREATIVE FEATURE FILM AWARD:
THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES by ASMAE EL MOUDIR (Morocco, 2023, 97′)
The filmmaker makes a journey dedicated to historical and personal introspection. Through an authentic directorial idea, the author experiments with a conscious narration that makes History regain materiality and fearlessly addresses the conflicts generated by the incessant dialectic between fiction and reality, constantly searching for the true.
For the Short Film Section in Competition, the Jury decreed as follows:
❯ BEST SHORT FILM AWARD:
LA VOIX DES AUTRES by FATIMA KACI (France, 2023, 30′)
For the need to give a voice to those who do not have one while preserving their humanity.
❯ CERVANTES PRIZE FOR THE MOST CREATIVE SHORT FILM:
THE KEY by RAKAN MAYASI (Palestine, 2023, 18′)
For its ability to tell the question of Palestine through a genre that is foreign to the usual narratives. The topos of the desire to go back home comes directly through the metaphor of the key.
PIUCULTURE JURY
The Piuculture jury composed of Shiva Boroumand, Mihaela Mitrut, Djafarou Zakaria Alidou, Indri Shiroca, Iryna Zarichniuk, Daniela Ionita awarded:
❯ BEST FILM AWARD:
DANCING ON THE EDGE OF A VOLCANO by CYRIL ARIS (Lebanon, 2023, 87′)
A film about films, about the magic of the set and the essence of filmmaking. A work leaves the viewer initially bewildered, disoriented, unable to distinguish present from past, reality from fiction. Only later, the confusion dissipate or perhaps it becomes irrelevant whether we are dealing with a documentary or a film about cinema. What we see on the screen is a tale of the difficulties that arise behind the scenes of a set and of the stubbornness of a crew that, in spite of a very complicated environmental situation, in the aftermath of the explosion in the port of Beirut, nevertheless decides to get the job done. Cyril Aris, Lebanese director, screenwriter and editor, tells us about a deeply wounded city, a country perennially on the brink of the abyss, grappling with multiple crises, which become co-protagonists in a story about dedication and love for cinema, experienced as a true vocation. An original and interesting look, an incredible cinematic language, memorable music and photography make it a true gem within a selection of the highest quality.
❯ LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2023:
To ÁNGELA MOLINA
For her uncommon versatility, for the infinite interpretative nuances of which she is capable, for her enormous ability to move from the most refined art-house cinema to big US productions, without ever losing an ounce of her class and her desire to explore the range of human feelings. Born into art, icon of the transición española, endowed with a natural elegance and full command of roles, Ángela Molina has been one of the most versatile and intense actresses in European cinema since the late 1970s. This award is a recognition of forty-five years of an incredible film career, without ever showing it.
❯ KOINÈ PRIZE 2023:
To UNICEF
In the light of its action in the most difficult places on the planet, such as the terrible war scenarios, and its help to the children in Italy through projects such as the Baby Friendly Hospital, the MedFilm Festival is honoured and delighted to award UNICEF with the Koinè 2023 Prize, an award dedicated each year to a personality or an entity from the world of art, culture, science, or associations that have distinguished themselves, through their actions and their work, for their commitment to keeping dialogue between peoples alive, in search of points of contact and shared languages.
