The CinemAmbiente Festival ends today, Sunday 12 June, with the award ceremony for the winning films (at 8 pm, at the National Cinema Museum – Mole Antonelliana), the twenty-five year edition.
“The CinemAmbiente Festival represents the ecological vocation of the National Cinema Museum and confirms its fundamental attitude with meetings, films and awards: to be a reference point for any thought, idea, proposal, complaint that addresses environmental issues through cinema – underline the president of the National Cinema Museum Enzo Ghigo and the director Domenico De Gaetano – The balance of this 25th edition, opened with the spectacular cine-musical project by Marlene Kuntz in the Mole Antonelliana, is also very positive. Compared to when the Festival was born, we are in the midst of an ecological transition that will have wide repercussions on society, the economy and culture, all signs that CinemAmbiente interprets and will always interpret in a timely and innovative way “.
“I am very satisfied with this edition which has sanctioned a real return to cinema“ in presence ”- says the director of the Festival Gaetano Capizzi. “And, what interests us most, our event once again proved to be an effective catalyst: it had important guests – Italian and foreign – able to intervene in an original way in the general debate on the state of the Planet, it attracted other forms artistic, has actively involved various European projects, confirming itself as a unique event in the panorama of Italian environmental culture “.
The winning films and the other titles proposed in this year’s program can be viewed for free online through the Festival website, www.festivalcinemambiente.it, until June 21, on the OpenDDB platform (capacity of 500 accesses for each title).
The prizes awarded at the end of the 25th edition of the Festival are:
➢ Asja.Energy Award for Best Documentary ($ 5000), awarded by the jury composed of Werner Boote, director, Suzanne Crocker, director, Sonia Filippazzi, journalist, Beppe Rovera, journalist, Gianluca Maria Tavarelli, director, to: Carbon – The Unauthorized Biography by Daniella Ortega & Niobe Thompson (Australia, Canada, France 2021, 89 ‘) with the following motivation: A difficult subject made understandable to all: carbon tells about itself, leading the viewer to discover an element at the basis of life but which today also risks causing its end. Science but also poetry and creativity come together in multiple narrative languages, without neglecting the lightness of humor, to make visible what is invisible.
The jury also awarded a special mention to the film:
Pleistocene Park by Luke Griswold-Tergis (USA 2022, 101 ‘) with the following motivation: The stubborn determination of a scientist who – alone with his son – tries to reproduce the conditions of the Pleistocene in a remote area of Siberia to counter the melting of the permafrost. What appears to be visionary madness ends up conquering the viewer as something possible and indeed necessary for the common interest in the face of the dramatic effects of climate change.
➢ Terna Award for Best Short Film ($ 1500), awarded by the jury composed of Cristina Gabetti, journalist, Marlene Kuntz, musicians, Claudia Praolini, artistic director of Concorto Film Festival, to: Haulout by Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev (United Kingdom, Russian Federation 2021, 25 ‘) with the following motivation: We appreciated the narrative dimension capable of destabilizing the gaze, leaving the images witnessing the events, without the interpretative mediation of the word. There is amazement, there is poetry, there is a political outlook. Opening towards the immanence of an animal world that forces us to become aware of the catastrophic effects imposed by climate change. Research and experimentation combined with an amazing technical achievement.
The jury also awarded a special mention to the film: Bolo Raz Jedno More … (Once There was a Sea …) by Joanna Kozuch (Slovakia, Poland 2021, 16 ‘) with the following motivation: For the realization of the magnificent images with which told the story of a catastrophic environmental and social transformation, that of the Aral Sea. The disappearance of the ancient sea is intertwined with the lives of women and men who have prospered on those shores, lost everything, and who now inhabit their imaginary shores, in a dusty and surreal atmosphere. The graphic style is both incisive and light.
➢ IREN Audience Award ($ 1500), awarded by Festival spectators to: Going Circular by Nigel Walk and Richard Dale (Netherlands 2021, 90 ‘)
➢ “Environment and Society” Award, established by the Arcobaleno Social Cooperative, for the film, which best knew how to combine environmental issues and the social dimension, assigned by the workers of the Cooperative to: Chemical Bros. by Massimiliano Mazzotta (Italy 2022 , 74 ‘) with the following motivation: A denouncing documentary film that sends a strong message to the world, through a journey that from Sardinia passing through the Veneto region arrives in Great Britain and focuses on an ever-current issue: countering an economy based on on the unbridled production of objects of common use, which puts economic interests above the well-being of the community and the environment. An uncomfortable documentary, to solicit awareness and implement collective action to counter the drifts that affect everyone in terms of irreversible loss of the environment and health. A turnaround is required. After all, we are made of chemistry, but of natural chemistry.
➢ “Casacomune” Award, established by the Festival and by Casacomune, School and Actions, for the film or the author who was best able to reflect themes related to spirituality understood as a dimension closely linked to nature to which we belong, assigned to : Suzanne Crocker, director of the film First We Eat
The awards to personalities from the world of cinema and other arts and disciplines awarded in the 25th edition of the Festival are:
➢ “Stella della Mole” Award, instituted by the National Cinema Museum and the Festival, for an artist who, through the language of cinema, declines themes related to the environment and nature in his work, assigned to Franco Piavoli.
➢ Prize “From the Earth to the Earth”, offered by Biorepack, of € 3000, for the figure or film that best illustrates the problems related to the soil, its protection from pollution and climate change, and sustainable food production, awarded to Vandana Shiva.
➢ “Ciak verde” Award, established by the Festival and by Legambiente, for a figure from the world of Italian cinema and entertainment committed to defending the environment who makes his image and communication skills available to raise public awareness of the seriousness of the current climate crisis, awarded to Alessandro Gassmann.
➢ “La Ghianda” literary prize, instituted by the Festival, for an author who during her artistic career has expressed a deep and personal relationship with the environment, landscape and nature, awarded to Antonella Anedda.
The winners of the 25th Turin Film Festival – Piedmontese newspaper