It is time to celebrate the NABA Cinema Awards 2023 winners. The brainchild of Vincenzo Cuccia (Media Design and New Technologies, and Set Design Area Leader), the short film festival tributes the best audiovisual cinematic projects by students of the Media Design and New Technologies and Set Design Areas. The second edition was held simultaneously at the Cinema Anteo Palazzo del Cinema in Milan and at Cinema Intrastevere in Rome on March 22. Below are the results.
The short film festival: the winning projects
Best Short Film
"Il cortile": Riccardo Stabilini (Director, Sound, DOP, Editor).
An authentic tale of teens in the suburbs: the short tells the everyday life of Dalin and her peers in the Cremasque countryside in summertime.
Best Short Film - Rome
"Voluptas": Costanza Lusini (Director, Screenwriter, Sound, DOP, Editor); Filippo Verna (Set Designer, Sound, DOP, VFX); Alessandro Bartolomei (Sound).
Lucretius' "De Rerum Natura" comes to be an animated short film in mixed media, full of vivid illustrations and vibrant colours. Here Venus, the poet's muse, changes the world by bringing life.
Best Extra-Short Animation and Best Screenplay
"Una bella giornata": Angela Li (Director, Screenwriter, Set Designer, Sound, DOP, Editor, VFX); Alessia Lionetti, Chiara Mallus and Sarah Marinoni de Athayde (Director, Screenwriter, Set Designer, DOP, Editor, VFX); Davide Saccuman, Giulio Tenca (Set Designer); Annalisa Spera (Sound).
A sarcastic animated short that shows the child's perspective on reality. Camilla writes her diary and watches the shadows on the floor, where images tell of her daily distress.
Best Direction
"Il pesce della libertà": Linna Shi (Director, Screenwriter); Zixuan Zhang (Set Designer); Zhengsheng Gao (DOP); Jing Shi (Editor); Qingyan Xue (Producer).
The struggle for emancipation: a young woman escapes from the oppressive mentality of her father (the fishmonger Zhang), an arranged marriage and her unfair social environment.
Jury Special Prize
"Condominio N°IMX172": Gaia Longobardi (Director, Screenwriter); Bravagente Sound Agency, Enrico Della Sala (Sound); Alessandro Ressia (DOP); Matteo Boscolo Gioachina (Editor, Producer).
By way of documentary, the short film narrates a condominium's rebellion. The building fights human beings through an endless oscillating motion that is non-human language.
Best Cinematography
"Condominio N°IMX172": credits in the Jury Special Prize section.
"Absinthe" (ex aequo): Leonardo Bosatra (Director, Screenwriter); Denise Verde (Screenwriter, Editor, Producer); Bianca Ruggero, Cecilia Strozzi (Set Designer); Mattia Masoni (Sound); Nicola Di Lollo (DOP); Elena Iankov, Kevin Luciano, Francesco Margiotta, Ariel Monti, Fadil Pezzolla, Simone Prato, Mattia Rastellotti (VFX).
The young man Yves and Hector meet each other in a late 19th-century house. Here, conversations, poetry and absinthe mingle.
Best Editing
"Terá": Stefano Camera, Riccardo Vormstein (Director, Screenwriter, DOP, Editor); Guglielmo Gerbi (Sound).
The essay-documentary uses very strong symbols. It explores the deepest and obscure feelings hidden within the magical Piedmont.
Best Sound
"Lacrime di terra": Ettore Rinaldi (Director, Screenwriter, Set Designer, DOP, Editor); Manuele Granelli, Francesca Venzano (Director, Screenwriter, Set Designer, DOP); Roberto Pugliese (Sound).
An excursion to Craco - a town hit by a landslide in the Sixties and now abandoned. A journey to search the village glorious past, where alive surrounding and wasteland meet.
"L'inusuale proposta di vivere" (ex aequo) Alex Ciuffardi (Director, Screenwriter, DOP); Gabriel Zama (Screenwriter); Alessandro De Santis (Set Designer); Angelo Meringolo (Sound, Editor); Angelica Alinei (Producer).
Joseph is on a solitary beach, in front of an old telephone. Following the device's wire, he meets characters and images from his past life.
Best VFX
"The Future in the end": Mattia Raffellini (Director, Screenwriter, Set Designer, Sound, DOP, Editor, VFX).
In a dystopian next future, Josh has to accomplish a vital mission in the decrepit yet bright city of Neon Town.
Best Set Design
"Il Peccato di Anna": Isabel Zanato (Director, Screenwriter, DOP, Editor); Francesco Zara (Director, Screenwriter, Editor, Producer); Susanna Vavassori (Screenwriter, Set Designer, Sound, Editor); Beatrice Cirilli (Screenwriter, Editor).
The short looks at Anna's life. It tells about the relationship with her mother, her religious upbringing and her desire to live new experiences similar to those of her peers.
NABA Cinema Award: the prizes
Each category-winning project received a trophy designed for this NABA Cinema Awards edition. The winner of the Best Short Film prize was also awarded the festival distribution service by Premiere Film. A special thanks goes to all the partners of the initiative (La Feltrinelli-Maremosso, Premiere Film, Wacom, Moovie), granting special prizes to the winners of the main categories. The projects awarded by the external jury were screened at the end of the ceremony.
The NABA short film festival jury
Once again, film industry professionals selected the winning projects. The jury for the categories Best Short Film, Best Short Film - Rome, Best Extra-Short Animation, Best Direction, Jury Special Prize, was made up of Alfio Bastiancich (vice-President Cartoon Italia, National Association of Animation Producers), Amina Grenci (story editor at Indiana Production), Federica Fracassi (actress), Chiara Leonardi (NABA alumna, Project Development - Matteo Garrone at Archimede Srl), Francesco Zippel (director and producer). This edition provided two new awards: Best VFX and Best Set Design. As for Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Editing, the winners of these two categories was selected by a jury including Alessandro Bertante (Bachelor of Arts in Film and Animation Course Leader - Milan), Fabio Capalbo (Bachelor of Arts in Film and Animation Course Advisor Leader - Rome), Andrea Maggiolo (BA in Creative Technologies Course Advisor Leader) and NABA lecturers Enrico Brocchetta, Denise Carnini, Maresa Lippolis, Igor Muroni and Andrea Pestarino.