Oct. 25 – For the past 30 years, in October the “Annecy Cinéma Italien” Festival is there to offer a complete overview of Italy’s latest film production season. The town in Haute-Savoie has screened more than 60 titles with three world premieres : “Amoreodio” by Cristian Scardigno, “Water out of the ring” by Joel Stangle, and “31 degrees Kelvin” by Giovanni Calvaruso. The program also included works by Alessandro Gassman, Giovanni Columbu, Elisa Fuksas, Bruno Oliviero, and Andrea Segre next to the “veterans” Silvio Soldini and Daniele Vicari. The 31st edition of the festival directed by Jean Gili is the most comprehensive foreign Italian cinema event. It concluded its works by giving out the Sergio Leone Award to Roberto Andò, while “First Snow” by Daniele Segre won Le Grand Prix and the Audience Award, and “The human variable” by Bruno Oliviero took home two awards: Special Jury Prize and Best Male Actor (Silvio Orlando). The award for Best Actress was awarded instead to Francesca Ferrazzo, the young protagonist of “Amoreodio,” a film inspired by the Novi Ligure chronicles. The Annecy Festival screened “Amoreodio,” a story of youth lived to the extreme by a pair of 17 year olds, played by Francesca Ferrazzo and Michele Degirolamo. The preview screening of Cristian Scardigno’s movie rocked, shocked and impressed the audience, composed mainly by students. “Probably almost all the movies in one way or another are inspired by real events. Some do so in a more striking manner, as does ‘Amoreodio’ – says the director, screenwriter and film producer – In my case, I tried to strip the event of all its journalistic ‘embellishments’ to make way for the characters. I only cared about the people: I stick to the two protagonists from the first to the last shot. Just by being around them, you could get some answers; but whether these answers are clear or they leave room for other interpretations is different matter.” Born in 1982, Scardigno graduated from DAMS Università degli Studi Roma Tre and from the Academy of Cinema Griffith of Rome for film direction. Scardigno speaks of the Haute-Savoie Festival as “a fantastic experience”: “Unlike Montreal, where ‘Amoreodio’ was presented in world premiere, in Annecy the climate was totally different, more intimate and familiar. Thanks to the charming small town of Annecy and being so close to home made this event unique. For me, there was more pressure because we truly were showing the film in our ‘neighborhood’. We were in a competition with such distinguished ‘opponents’… It made me more nervous but at the same time I am proud of having come this far with this little film. I was able to fully enjoy the applause from the audience at the end of the screening because I heard sincere appreciation and saw their faces of the people and that paid off for all my efforts. It was a great success thanks to the incredible number of spectators present at the screenings. Their interest complemented perfectly the award for Francesca: both crowned a wonderful adventure.” About Francesca, Scardigno says: “She came to the audition and was absolutely perfect. She captured perfectly my way of thinking about the character. All it took was one look to understand immediately she had to play Katia. Visually, I could already see her in the film. Then, fortunately, the work done before and during the movie confirmed her talent. Now that she won in Annecy, I hope others will notice her.” Finally Scardigno, who has already won numerous international awards, reflects on Italian cinema abroad:”The impression is that Italian cinema abroad is highly sought after. There is a desire to see Italian productions and our directors are always welcomed with open arms. I do not know if it’s a matter of culture or education abroad, but I think there is still a great deal of respect for our cinema. Which is not to say – precisely – that every movie will get to the heart of the viewer. It still takes great quality, that makes the viewers reflect, laugh, cry in every part of the world.”
