Lecce European Film Festival: finalists for the Mario Verdone Award

by Vittoria Scarpa

03/02/2012 - April 21, the closing day of the 13th Lecce Festival of European Film (April 17-21), will see the announcement of the Award in Memory of Mario Verdone. The children of the famous Italian film critic, Carlo, Luca and Silvia, will administer the award, which has reached its third edition and is reserved for a young director who has stood out in the latest film season (max 40 years old, first or second work).

Chosen by the Festival of European Film, the National Union of Italian Film Journalists and by the Experimental Film Centre, the 11 short-listed films are: first works Cavalli [trailer] by Michele Rho (see the news), Alice Rohrwacher’s Corpo celeste [trailer, film focus] (news), Andrea Segre’s Shun Li and the Poet [trailer, film focus] (news), Guido Lombardi’s Là-bas – A Criminal Education [trailer, film focus] (news), Francesco Lagi’s Missione di pace [trailer], Edoardo De Angelis’s Mozzarella Stories [trailer], Pippo Mezzapesa’s Il paese delle spose infelici (news), Alessandro Genovesi’s La peggior settimana della mia vita [trailer] (news), Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio’s Seven Acts of Mercy [trailer] (news), and second works I primi della lista [trailer] by Roan Johnson (news) and Carlo Virzì’s I più grandi di tutti [trailer] (news).

On March 16, in the course of the festival’s presentation in Rome, the three finalists in the running for the award will be announced. "This film season", said Carlo Verdone, "draws public attention to many new names: directors and actors with strong personalities and totally personal styles. And this will definitely make our choice much harder". Previous editions of the Mario Verdone Award have been won by Susanna Nicchiarelli for Cosmonauta and by Aureliano Amadei for 20 Cigarettes.

(Translated from Italian)