The power of a shared vision

The 19th edition of Giornate degli Autori, headed by President Andrea Purgatori, working alongside the Board of Directors, General Delegate Giorgio Gosetti, and Artistic Director Gaia Furrer, will run from August 31st to September 10th, during the 79th Venice Film Festival.

Founded in 2004, the brainchild of Francesco Maselli and Emidio Greco, Giornate degli Autori is promoted by ANAC and 100autori and made possible by the unwavering support of the MIC’s General Directorate for Cinema and the joint efforts of partners such as Miu Miu, SIAE, BNL, the European Parliament’s Lux Audience Award, and the streaming platform MUBI. Vibrant independent sidebar organized in concert with the Venice Biennale, Giornate 2022 once again presents 10 films in the running for the GdA Director’s Award, in addition to the closing film (The Listener by Steve Buscemi) and five special events which are also world premieres. The Official Selection features 19 countries, 6 women directors and 5 first films. Nine titles are on the lineup for Venetian Nights, the alternative showcase of auteur Italian films that is co-organized with Isola Edipo at the Sala Laguna.

Directors and stars on hand for Giornate this year include: Abel Ferrara, Shia LaBeouf, Salvatore Mereu, Wissam Charaf, Steve Buscemi, Tessa Thompson, Stefania Sandrelli, Silvia D’Amico, Sébastien Lifshitz, Daniele Ciprì, Roberta Torre, Luigi Lo Cascio, Filippo Timi, Artavazd Pelešjan, Bob Odenkirk, Edgar Reitz; and naturally the Giornate jury president Céline Sciamma, who, together with the 27 young jurors and cinephiles from the 27 EU countries, coordinated by Karlovy Vary Festival Director Karel Och, will be choosing the winner of the GdA Director’s Award, with its cash prize of €20,000.

“It goes without saying,” declares the President of the cultural association Giornate degli Autori, Andrea Purgatori, “that our focus will be primarily on a bold selection of offerings that are particularly receptive to major social issues and political passions past and present, and look to a horizon spanning very different cultures and embracing, especially this year, the winds of change blowing towards Europe from the Mediterranean. Italy itself can boast four films on the lineup, including the hotly anticipated Padre Pio by Abel Ferrara; even more important, this edition is remarkably rich in events, talks, dialogues with filmmakers – almost as numerous as the films to be screened, which is a tribute to Giornate’s original calling, when it was created back in 2004.”

In addition to the grand tradition of the Miu Miu Women’s Tales talks (made by possible thanks to a collaboration with the Veneto Region, Cinecittà, and the Ente dello Spettacolo), following the screening in Sala Perla of the ‘auteur shorts’ House Comes with a Bird by Janicza Bravo and Carta a mi madre para mi hijo by Carla Simón), Giornate events this year feature: three masterclasses co-organized with the Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, including a special talk with Edgar Reitz, to fete the restoration of his Heimat 2, thirty years after it premiered at Venice; three events promoted by SIAE (among them, a talk with Bob Odenkirk after the presentation of Cecilia Miniucchi’s Worlds Apart, in which he stars); and a special event devoted to the project 100+1 and the Scuola d’Arte Cinematografica Florestano Vancini in Ferrara, with the screening of Era Roma by Mario Canale. Then there is the two-day event Milano Industry Days – MID by MFN #1, jointly organized by Milano Film Network and Isola Edipo; two panels arranged by ANAC (Cinema and Schools) and 100autori (Women in the Audiovisual Industry); the traditional pre-opening book event on August 30th, the Bookciak Azione! Award; plus a talk with Cecilia Strada; the 27 Times Cinema campus, a project of the LUX Audience Award, in collaboration with Europa Cinemas and Cineuropa, with the members of the European Parliament in attendance, on September 3rd-4th; the livestreamed talks with the contemporary voices of Italy organized by MUBI; and a program of events for the 10th anniversary of the Sardegna Film Commission.

Two unique occasions complete the list this year. The first, courtesy of a collaboration between Isola Edipo and the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, takes place on September 5th and revolves around the great Armenian artist Artavazd Pelešjan, a spokesman for Inclusion 2022, in Venice with a selection of his short films and his most recent work, Nature. The second, thanks to SIAE’s invaluable support, brings a star exponent of Italian independent film to Venice: Daniele Ciprì, dazzling cinematographer on hand at Giornate with his storytelling and directing verve put to work in the short film La fornace.

Joint initiatives at Giornate include a new “three-way” collaboration this year: BNL BNP Paribas will be awarding a cash prize of €3,000 to a first or second film from among the narrative features in competition; the distinguishing features of which must be courage and innovation. The grant, dubbed BNL x Cinema del futuro, will be announced by five film students at Rome’s Centro Sperimentale di cinematografia and bestowed on Friday, September 9th.

Last but not least, the Sala Laguna will host an exhibition curated by Italo Moscati, ANAC Turns 70, devoted to the historic association of Italian filmmakers; Giornate bows early in Chioggia, in late August, for the 8th edition of Laguna Sud, co-organized by Zalab and the city of Chioggia; and a sampling of the 2022 Giornate lineup will be offered on the Esterno Notte program in Venice, and then in Rome, for the Venezia a Roma showcase at the Cinema Farnese.

“To describe our program this year,” observes General Delegate Giorgio Gosetti, “we could do worse than quote Shakespeare, with a smile: ‘There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’ The truth is that a single overriding passion brought together ideas, people, works, supporters, consultants and programmers, all united by a shared mission; to show the world and its complexity through images and words, commentary and dreams, and without any barriers between invention and chronicle, or any hierarchy between master artists and beginners; and above all, with no fear of displaying courage. My heartfelt thanks, therefore, to all the individuals, collaborators, institutions and enterprises at our side, for their gift of enthusiasm and utopia.”