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Festival internazionale Segni della Notte - Urbino
International Festival Signs of the Night - Urbino

8° Festival internazionale Segni della Notte - Urbino - Aprile 10-14, 2024

22th International Festival Signs of the Night - Italy

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION ITALIAN SHORT FILM


MAIN AWARD


Alien Food

Giorgio Cugno
Italy / 2023 / 1:48:00

Who are we – when nobody is watching? What are our fantasies and phobias – if we don’t share them? After many years in a protected psychiatric community, Alberto (40) comes to stay with Vicky’s (12) family. As a vulnerable adult, Alberto divides his time between his old therapeutic community, his work, and adapting to the rhythms and boundaries of his new ‘home’. Alberto silently tries to escape his pharmacological therapy by not taking his pills. For years, they have helped him control his “demons”, but they have also overshadowed his instincts and emotions. Vicky loves science fiction and is very different from her peers. In her world, alien, distant planets are something to discover. Vicky notices that Alberto hides his pills at the dinner table, so Alberto shares this secret for the first time. From this moment on, their bond grows stronger. Alberto works part-time at a place that collects old PCs and electronics, recovering and recycling them. Here, he secretly saves private images and video files on his own hard drive, glimpses of other people’s lives that become Alberto’s personal “social network”, making him feel less alone. As these glimpses begin to merge with his own imagination and visions of the new world he inhabits, Alberto’s daily life becomes more difficult to navigate. Vicky shares her studies of the neighbouring mountain with him, the summit of Mount Musiné, which she considers as magical. As Vicky’s storytelling supports Alberto in his quiet revolt, she and the mountain will lead him to confront reality, and perhaps for the last time, the ghosts that were buried by his state of chemical numbness for so many years - starting from the horizon that he would like to, but cannot, cross. Can their friendship of reality and fantasy co-exist, without posing true danger to both Alberto and Vicky?

 


JURY DECLARATION

Through the unlikely bond of the two main characters, we witness the power of human connection to transcend age, background, and circumstance. In its sensitive portrayal of human emotion and its refreshing departure from traditional storytelling conventions, Alien Food stands as a testament to the power of cinema to inspire, provoke, and ultimately, unite us in our shared humanity.


DIRECTOR STATEMENT

I hope that the film can, starting from psychiatry and Alberto’s world, not only break down the prejudice against the stigma linked to psychiatric illness, but open a parallelism between what psychiatry today reflects of our society and our drift. While not opposed to progress and technology at all, I think we need to define parameters by which we can protect our lives and future generations from what we can call Neuro-capitalism, or the capitalization of our emotions at the expense of empathy and our lives.




SIGNS AWARD

The Signs Award honours films, which treat an important subject in an original and convincing way




Nothing is, Nothing will be

Federico Anglano
Italy / 2023 / 0:17:35

After leaving a party, Andrea wanders in a nocturne and deserted Rome, interrogating himself with a strange girl about the reason that brought him to make an extreme action.



 

 


JURY DECLARATION

„Nothing is, nothing will be“ --- ? Are we creating boundaries inside and outside ourselves and the existing world? What is the best way to wall ourselves off when the environment is not pleasant for us? If we don't fit into the norms and standards that society imposes, regardless of our sensibilities and aspirations, whether that makes us pessimists or negativists??? Following an interesting philosophical conversation between a person who does not fit into the world around him and the person his mind creates, we may find ourselves asking many questions about ourselves, our position in society and our perception of the world and social environment.



DIRECTOR STATEMENT

I’m so honored to have won this award and I really thank the jury for having chosen a short film that, in my opinion, reflects deep elements of my soul and represents feelings and thoughts of the darkest period of my life.
This short films goes beyond nihilism and existentialism treating questions and dilemmas of the human condition. I realized this short film in order to crystallize a part of me I could never get rid of and, maybe, it would help somebody question and find answers, if there are somewhere out there.
This film was made by a really coesive group of passionate young filmmakers during winter cold nights, from sunset to sunrise and dealing with rain and tourist. But in the end we made it and never gave up. It is a special honor for us know that it won a great award.




NIGHT AWARD

The Night Award honours films, which are able to balance ambiguity and complexity characterized by enigmatic mysteriousness
and subtleness, which keeps mind and consideration moving


The Remixed City

Stefano Giannotti
Italy / 2024 / 0:17:55

Streets, buildings, deserts, seas, mountains, burners with crackling pans, domestic and exotic animals, musical instruments, wrong perspectives, impossible architecture… This is the city of the future, an ideal and surreal metropolis to wander and maybe get lost in, not without danger. A tribute to surrealist painting, to exorcise the decline in attention on social media, which has now reached the 10-second mark.

WORLD PREMIERE




 


JURY DECLARATION

The jury appreciate the film‘s ability to engage the audience on multiple levels. Each frame is a carefully crafted composition, inviting viewers to explore and interpret the layers of meaning within. The juxtaposition of elements provoke our perceptions and imagination, making us to reconsider the familiar and to process the unexpected.


DIRECTOR STATEMENT

In questi giorni si è tenuto a urbino il film festival internazionale Segni della Notte, un bellissimo evento dedicato al cinema di autore con video molto interessanti e "diversi" che celebrano diversi aspetti del quotidiano in relazione ad asoetti filosofici dell'esistenza. Un festival che meriterebbe molta più attenzione da parte delle istituzioni proprio perché vuole porsi come momento di confronto e discussione sia con i giovani, sia con le persone di un po' tutte le età. Il direttore Dieter Wieczorek, una persona squisita ha accolto i nostri lavori con grande passione e calore e sono davvero felice di avere ottenuto il Primo Premio nella sezione dedicata al cinema italiano.

***

The international film festival Segni della Notte (Signs of the Night) was held in Urbino in the last few days. It is a beautiful event dedicated to auteur cinema with very interesting and 'different' videos that celebrate different aspects of everyday life in relation to philosophical aspects of existence. A festival that deserves much more attention from the institutions precisely because it wants to be a moment of confrontation and discussion with both young people and people of all ages. The director Dieter Wieczorek, an exquisite person, welcomed our works with great passion and warmth and I am truly happy to have won the First Prize in the section dedicated to Italian cinema.