Winners of the Doc at Work Industry Awards
The winners of the Doc at Work Industry section were announced at the 65th Festival dei Popoli, including the projects of the Proxima section, the films in the editing and post-production phase, and Itineranze Doc, the last stage of the six-month journey that accompanied directors and productions in the development of emerging projects.
The two initiatives form part of Doc at Work, the professional and training platform of the Festival dei Popoli, active since 2013, and made possible thanks to the support of Fondazione Sistema Toscana, MAD - Murate Art District, Swiss Films, CNA Cinema e Audiovisivo Toscana, CNA Cinema e Audiovisivo Firenze. The award ceremony took place on Friday 8 November, from 7pm at the Fedora Bistrot space in Florence.
‘The Festival dei Popoli proposed for the second year the Proxima section, the Doc at Work showcase dedicated to projects under editing or post-production directed by Italian directors, as well as hosting the last stage of ITINERANZE DOC, a unique training experience in the Italian film scene, realised by the Festival dei Popoli in collaboration with five other Italian festivals (Bellaria Film Festival; IsReal; SoleLuna Doc; PerSo; FrontDoc). - said Margot Mecca, head of the section for Festival dei Popoli - During this edition of Doc at Work, we made new films and emerging authors discoverable to Italian and international professionals; our mission is to support these projects in their journey by activating new synergies and collaborations and offering new circulation perspectives for the films in the pipeline. We thank our partner festivals, CPH:DOX, Sheffield Doc Festival, Visions du Réel, RIDM for their collaboration in supporting the internationalisation of these projects, offering them the opportunity to expand their network and meet new potential partners at their festivals and events. We thank SudTitles for putting innovative tools for film inclusion and accessibility at the service of the winning project.’
RDMI Rough Cut Pitch 2024
For the Proxima Awards, the RIDM Rough Cut Pitch 2024, which will allow participation in the film market that takes place in Canada, the Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM), went to ‘On the Serbian Border’ by Federico Cammarata and Filippo Foscarini, a painfully topical slice of the Serbian forest, near the border with Hungary, where clans of migrant smugglers hide in the dark. During a long night in this extreme limbo, the walls between their world and ours almost disappear.
SudTitles Accessibility Award
The SudTitles Accessibility Award ‘Cinema for all’, presented by Giorgio Lisciandrello, CEO of SudTitles, consisting of the production and supply of inclusive subtitles for the winning film, went to ‘Il castello indistruttibile’ by Danny Biancardi, Stefano La Rosa and Virginia Nardelli, which follows Angelo, Mery, Rosy and Giada, four eleven-year-olds who live in Danisinni, an old isolated neighbourhood in Palermo, amidst their reveries and imagined shelters, in a place cut off from the city, isolated from its urban and social changes.
CPH:Industry Award
The Itineranze Doc prizes, on the other hand, consist of accreditations to attend the relevant international festivals, the full programme and the respective industry sections, where industry professionals can meet, create new synergies and promote the dissemination of their projects.
The CPH:Industry Award was presented by Lars Skovgaard Laursen, selector of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, to ‘MUT AR’ by Maria Elena Franceschini, a story of the relationship between humans and animals, a relationship that seeks to go beyond the limits of life to reinvent itself in new forms.
Sheffield DocFest Networking Award
The Sheffield DocFest Networking Award was presented by Patrizia Mancini, Head of Industry of the British festival, and went to ‘Due madri’ (Two Mothers) by Giulia Di Maggio: a story that follows the seven years following the death of her mother Angela, along which the director follows her mother's footsteps through the memories of her maternal grandmothers, two elderly sisters who have contended for the motherhood of the same daughter, Angela, all their lives.
Vision du Réel Industry Award
Lastly, the Vision du Réel Industry Award, announced by Alice Burgin, Head of Industry at the Nyon event, went to Ben Donateo's ‘La Mattanza’, which takes us to a timeless island with a fisherman seeking reconciliation with his daughter, while a group of boys greet the age of innocence. It is the day of the tonnara, the annual slaughter of tuna, but also the day when the inhabitants of this story discover that they too are turning into tuna.
The festival is realised with the contribution of Europa Creativa Media, MiC - Direzione Generale Cinema e Audiovisivo, Regione Toscana, Comune di Firenze, Fondazione Sistema Toscana, Fondazione CR Firenze, Calliope Arts Foundation and Publiacqua.
It is organised within the framework of the “50 Giorni di Cinema a Firenze” that is part of the Triennial Cinema Project, supported by the Ministry of Tourism and local institutions and realised thanks to the Memorandum of Understanding between the Municipality of Florence, the Region of Tuscany and Fondazione Sistema Toscana, Fondazione CR Firenze, and the Chamber of Commerce.
