One of the competitive sections of our 17th edition has been officially announced: CortItalia, the competition dedicated to Italian productions and filmmakers. In a year as peculiar as 2020 has been, the choice was not easy, but the options were many. The selection committee and the artistic director Gianluca Castellini chose, almost unconsciously, a timeline that clearly defines a turning point between the before and after, the past and the future.
CortItalia 2020 is a rich and stimulating competition. Its timing is Italy’s time, moving at two different speeds. One is slow in its evolution as we see in U Scantu by Daniele Suraci, which deals with the fears of a child and is set in Calabria, just like La grande onda by Francesco Tortorella, which tells the story of the rise to power of one of the too many bosses. Then, La Napoli di mio padre, memories of times gone by directed by Alessia Bottone and Lievito madre by Muscolino & Garbo are also part of the selection. These short films guide us though our past and lead us to the understanding of the other, now that the world seems to be ruled by hate towards the different. The characters that populate these films are all played by Italian actors: the young Greek main character of Inverno by Giulio Mastromauro, winner of the David di Donatello 2020; the Liberian boys and girls from La scuola nella foresta by Emanuela Zuccalà; the persecuted young man in La ricreazione by Nour Gharbi and the gladiator Klaudio Ndoja of Giuseppe Marco Albanno’s Klod; the two women discovering their tortured love in front of the mirror in Specchio by the first-timer Caterina Crescini.
Many of these are faraway lands, although Sardinia is also considered as such by many Italians. This island is masterfully depicted in time and spirit by Giovanni Battista Origo in Maria. A chent’annos, with a great performance by Jacopo Cullin and in Margherita by Alice Murgia, a young talent worth keeping an eye on.
CortItalia 2020 has plenty of talents, some already well established like Giulia Steigerwalt, actress, screenwriter and, in this case, director of the delicate Settembre. Some more experienced, like Alessandro Haber, who has Vinicio Marchioni lead the game in Il gioco, a short and unsettling film. Even more unsettling, since it is based on a true story, is Il muro bianco, a tale that is a true sign of the times we are living in.
Cinema is a witness of time. CortItalia 2020 perfectly answers this now fundamental necessity.
CortoItalia – Official 2020 Selection
Apollo 18 by Marco Renda
Balkanika by Lu Pulici
Gira ancora by Elena Petitpierre
Il Gioco by Alessandro Haber
Il Muro bianco by Andrea Brusa, Marco Scotuzzi
Inverno by Giulio Mastromauro
Klod by Giuseppe Marco Albano
La Grande onda by Francesco Tortorella
La Napoli di mio padre by Alessia Bottone
La Ricreazione by Nour Gharbi
La Scuola nella foresta by Emanuela Zuccalà
Lievito Madre by Pierluigi Muscolino, Francesco Garbo
Margherita by Alice Murgia
Maria – A Chent’annos by Giovanni Battista Origo
Nikola Tesla – The Man From the Future by Alessandro Parrello
Paola Makes a Wish by Zhannat Alshanova
Settembre by Giulia Louise Steigerwalt
Specchio by Caterina Crescini
Testimoni by Rachid Benhadj
U scantu by Daniele Suraci
Yalla by Carlo D’Ursi