Bergamo - Ermanno Olmi Award : The finalist

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Announcing the finalists of the Ermanno Olmi Award - 6th Edition. On Tuesday, 3 December, award ceremony and screening of I fidanzati by Ermanno Olmi (1963).

Over 100 works are taking part in this year's 6th edition of the Ermanno Olmi Award, intended to promote short films by young directors. Fictions, documentaries, experimental films and animation, from Spain, Estonia, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, UK, Poland, China, Iran and Malaysia, among others, and a substantial Italian representative.

Three cash prizes (€1,200, €600, €400), made available by Bergamo Film Meeting Onlus, and a special mention with a cash prize worth €300 offered by FIC - Federazione Italiana Cineforum. Competing for the Prize, promoted by the City of Bergamo, with the support of Bergamo Film Meeting Onlus in collaboration with FIC - Federazione Italiana Cineforum are: VOCE by Andrea La Puca (Itay, 2024), Provocadora by Èlia Lorente Estopañan (Spain, 2023), We should all be futurists by Angela Norelli (Italy, 2023) and Mamo by Jan Ziewiecki (Poland, 2024).

The Prize will be awarded on Tuesday 3rd December at 8.30 p.m. at Lo Schermo Bianco by the jury consisting of Chiara Cremaschi (screenwriter and director), Rossana Galimi (PhD student), Massimo Lastrucci (film critic and journalist), Elisabetta Olmi (producer) e Stefano P. Testa (director) along with a special mention awarded to the most significant work concerning “The exercise of peace”. This is practiced in daily attitudes, in openness to encounter, compassion and doubt. It is a way of looking at the world around us, seeing in others existences to be respected, with which to share life paths. Ermanno Olmi's cinema reveals a gaze made of humanity, care and respect, which does not hide suffering and does not deny the difficulty of solidarity action, nor the loneliness of revolt.

In the words of Councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Bergamo, Sergio Gandi: «The Ermanno Olmi Award is a legacy worthy of particular appreciation, which the current City Administration wholeheartedly embraces, as it combines cinema with the younger generations, commemorating the renowned Italian director with an annual event. Dedicating space and resources to recognize the creativity of directors under 30 is the best way to keep cultural production vibrant, relevant to contemporary themes, and appealing to young people. This initiative also serves more mature audiences, who, through the lens of short films, can view the younger generations with curiosity and a more attentive, welcoming disposition. The numerous entries from around the world confirm that this Award has become a true benchmark for today’s film production».
 

During the evening - with free admission - the four finalist works of the competition will be screened and at 10.00 p.m. a tribute will be paid to Ermanno Olmi with I fidanzati (1963). The film print is provided by the Cineteca Nazionale CSC, courtesy of Titanus.

THE FINALISTS

VOCE by Andrea La Puca (Itay, 2024)

VOICE is an impulse, the need to give voice to those who have not been able to use their own. Andrea La Puca and Azzurra Nappi, collecting through an anonymous form hundreds of complaints of experiences of violence, give life to a female monologue that encompasses all the voices that could never be heard.

Provocadora by Èlia Lorente Estopañan (Spain, 2023)

What can't be remembered. The summer memories of Vera at her grandfather's home, will be interrupted by some situations that will make us question the reality of her actions, fears and attitudes. A mature point of view of a broken childhood, a discovery.

We should all be futurists by Angela Norelli (Italy, 2023)

At the turn of the 1910s and 1920s, in an allusive correspondence, Rosa confides in her friend Giorgina, telling her a secret: the machine-man envisioned by Marinetti is not a near future for mankind, as futurists say. It is a present for womankind, and Giorgina can unwrap it now.

Mamo by Jan Ziewiecki (Poland, 2024)

A tender look at the relationship between women, whose roles has been reversed by time. A daughter takes care of her old mother, but their bond is tested by fading memory. Ordinary activities take on new meanings and the presence of the other person becomes a source of strength in the face of the inevitable.

HOMAGE TO ERMANNO OLMI

I fidanzati by Ermanno Olmi (Italy, 1963)

Winner of the OCIC Prize at the 16th Cannes Film Festival, the film tells the story of Giovanni, a factory worker from Milan who accepts a temporary transfer to a plant in Sicily with the promise of career advancement. This move also gives him a chance to reflect on his relationship with his fiancée, Liliana, which over the years has grown dull and routine. Liliana, distressed by Giovanni’s decision, writes him letters of deep emotional intensity. With remarkable subtlety and a highly personal cinematic style, Olmi offers viewers an opportunity to understand how, despite the difficult and precarious conditions of modern life, human emotions are not necessarily doomed to fade. Instead, they can endure as lasting values, beyond the distances and time that separate us.

The Ermanno Olmi Award is promoted by the City of Bergamo with the support of Bergamo Film Meeting Onlus and in collaboration with FIC - Federazione Italiana Cineforum. 

In accord with the Minimum Environmental Criteria - parameters of environmental sustainability for cultural events - signed by the Municipality of Bergamo, the Prize takes part in the European Green Fest project: a commitment to both environment and culture, and a fitting tribute to Ermanno Olmi, who, through his works, was always a keen supporter of environmental preservation.