The time has come to reveal the Jury members for the 49th edition of Laceno d’Oro.
For the competition “Laceno d’Oro 49”:
Massimo D’Anolfi has created more than ten films presented at the most prestigious international festivals and in contemporary art museums worldwide. His works have been distributed in cinemas and on television across various European, American, and Asian countries. In 2002, he wrote the screenplay for Angela by Roberta Torre, which was presented in 2022 at the Cannes Film Festival. That same year, he produced five audio documentaries for Rai Radio 3. In 2003, his film Si torna a casa appunti per un film participated in and won several awards at various festivals. In 2004, he created Play, which was presented at the Festival dei Popoli and aired on Sky. In 2007, he made I promessi sposi, presented at the Locarno Festival in the Ici & Ailleurs section and awarded at the Festival dei Popoli in Florence and the Filmmaker Film Festival in Milan. In 2009, Grandi speranze was also presented in a world premiere at the Locarno Festival in Ici & Ailleurs. In 2011, Il Castello was selected by numerous international festivals (Cinema du Réel, Nyon; Hot Docs, Toronto; EIDF, Seoul; RIDM, Montreal; etc.) and won the Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs, Toronto, and the same recognition at EIDF, Seoul. At the IDA Awards in Los Angeles, Massimo D’Anolfi won the Best Cinematography Award, and at the Torino Film Festival, the film received the Special Jury Prize for Italiana.doc and the Avanti Prize, among many others. In 2013, Materia Oscura won the Corso Salani Prize for Best Work in Progress, was presented at the Berlinale (Forum), and began an extensive festival circuit, earning several awards. In 2015, L’Infinita Fabbrica del Duomo premiered at the Locarno Festival and was subsequently distributed by Lab80. In 2016, Spira Mirabilis premiered in competition at the 73rd Venice Film Festival. It was distributed in Italy by IWonder and internationally by The Match Factory. BLU (2018), co-produced with Rai Cinema, premiered worldwide at the 75th Venice Film Festival. In 2020, Guerra e pace had its world premiere in the Orizzonti Competition at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. It is distributed internationally by Taskovskj Films. In 2022, Una giornata nell’Archivio Piero Bottoni premiered at the Torino Film Festival. His most recent film, Bestiari Erbari Lapidari, had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival and the IDFA in Amsterdam, where it won the Best Directing Award.
Gaël Teicher is a producer and distributor at La Traverse (for films by Laurent Achard, Jean-Claude Brisseau, Gaël Lépingle, Patricia Mazuy, Luc Moullet, Jean-Daniel Pollet, Marie-Claude Treilhou, Paul Vecchiali, etc.) and editor at Éditions de the Eye (books by or about Boris Barnet, Luc Chessel, Pedro Costa, Pierre Creton, Bernard Eisenschitz, Jean Epstein, Rochelle Fack, Danielle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, Otar Iosseliani, Johan van der Keuken, Mathieu Macheret, Lucrecia Martel, Cyril Neyrat, Jacques Rancière, Alice Rohrwacher, Jean-Claude Rousseau, Douglas Sirk, Raoul Walsh, Apichatpong Weerasethakul … ). He would like to dedicate a film or a book to David Campese, Diego Armando Maradona and Marco Pantani.
Antonio Piazza, director and screenwriter, made his debut alongside Fabio Grassadonia in 2013 with the film Salvo. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival’s Semaine de la Critique, where it won both the Grand Prix and the Prix Révélation. Salvo was distributed in twenty countries and went on to win the Nastro d’Argento for Best Cinematography and the Golden Globe for Best Actress.
In 2017, Piazza and Grassadonia returned to Cannes with Sicilian Ghost Story, selected as the opening film for the Semaine de la Critique. The film, which earned the Sundance Institute Global Filmmaking Award for its screenplay, won the David di Donatello for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as the Silver Ribbon Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design. Sicilian Ghost Story participated in numerous prestigious international festivals and was distributed worldwide.
Piazza and Grassadonia’s latest film, Iddu (Sicilian Letters), premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2024. An Italian-French co-production by Indigo Film with Rai Cinema for Italy and Les Films du Losange for France (in collaboration with Canal+ and Cine+), the film was released in Italian theaters on October 10, 2024, and achieved notable box office success.
For the competition “Gli occhi sulla città”:
Pedro Duarte is the founder of the Portuguese film production company PRIMEIRA IDADE, which produced the most internationally acclaimed Portuguese film of 2020: the feature “The Metamorphosis of Birds”, written and directed by Catarina Vasconcelos, distinguished with the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film at the Berlinale’s Encounters program, as well as 24 other international film awards, among them the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera prize for best film at San Sebastian IFF, the Grand Prix of the New Horizons Film Festival, the Best Film Award of the Vilnius IFF, the Special Jury Prize of the Taipei Film Festival, the Golden Apricot at Yerevan IFF, the Best International Documentary at Victoria Film Festival, or Best Film at Dokufest. Sold to more than 10 territories, from China to the USA. In 2017 PRIMEIRA IDADE premiered at Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week the fiction short film “Bad Bunny”, directed by Carlos Conceição, screened at numerous festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand, New Directors/New Films in New York, among others, commercially broadcasted by ARTE TV. In 2019, the company premiered the fiction short-film “Ruby”, directed by Mariana Gaivão, screened at the IFF Rotterdam, Palm Springs, Festival du Nouveau Cinema, awarded Best Director at Curtas Vila do Conde. In 2019 as well, was released “Ghosts: Long Way Home” directed by Tiago Siopa, winner of the Best International Film Award at Jihlava’s First Lights program, of the Doc Alliance Award for Best Film, and Best Project at DocLisboa’s Arché in 2018. In April 2021 the company premiered the medium-lenght documentary “Sortes” at Visions du Réel in Nyon.
Luca Sorgato is a filmmaker, born in Milan in 1985. His filmic research moves between the exploration of forgotten bodies, places and objects, with a constant reflection on time. He conducts a study on Italian poet Attilio Lolini; digging through epistles, notes, old newspapers and original works. His works have been presented and awarded by museums and festivals including MOCAK in Krakow, Torino Film Festival, Laceno d’oro and ShorTS International Film Festival. In 2021 his short film “Yawns” won the best film award at the Beijing International Short Film Festival. His films are distributed by Collectif Jeune Cinéma in Paris.
Vanina Lappa is an Italo-French director and editor. She graduated from the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan, beginning her artistic journey with painting and video art. After a number of short films, she created her first documentary, called Sopra il fiume (“Above the River”), which won the 2016 Filmmaker Festival in Milan. She moved to Brussels to hone her craft as a documentary-maker and is developing her new feature film at the Ateliers Varan in Paris, “Nessun posto al mondo” (No place in the world) which won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Festival dei Popoli in 2023.
For the competition “Spazio Campania”:
Alessandro Rak Director, designer, animator. He graduated in Animation at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, after winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Castelli Animati Festival, the Cylect International Price and the First Prize at the Festival of Film School in Mexico City with his essays “Again” and “Looking Death Window”. From 2001 to 2011 he held art exhibitions at the Not Gallery, published comics and illustrated books such as “Ark”, for Grifo editions, “Bye Bye Jazz” for Lavieri, “a Skeleton Story” for GG. He took care of the character design and artistic direction for animation projects including the TV special “Il piccolo Sansereno e il Mistero dell’Uovo di Virgilio”; he created animated short films such as “Và”, First Prize at the Med Festival Video and “Teste al muro”, selected at the Palazzo Venezia Festival; music videos and artwork for musicians including “Kanzone su Londra” by 24 Grana, winner of the MEI award for best editing, “La Paura” by Bisca, “‘O sciore e ‘o viento” and “Donna Maria” by Foja. He created the theme song for Cartoons on the Bay 2014. “L’Arte della Felicità” is his first animated feature film. The film opened as a Special Event the 28th Critics’ Week of the 70th Venice International Film Festival, winning the Arca Cinema Giovani Award and the FEDIC Special Mention as Best Italian Film in Venice, the Award for Best First Work at the Raindance Film Festival 2013 in London, the Audience Award at Anima 2014 – International Animation Film Festival of Brussels, the Ciack d’Oro 2014 Bello & Invisibile, the Award for Best Film at Expotoons 2014 in Buenos Aires, the Student Jury Award at the 12th Kecskemét Animation Film Festival and the Award for Best European Animated Film at the European Film Awards 2014. In 2017 he directed, together with Ivan Cappiello, Marino Guarnieri and Dario Sansone, the animated feature film ‘Gatta Cenerentola’, produced by Mad Entertainment. Among his latest works: Yaya and Lennie – The Walking Liberty (2021) and F II – Lo stupore del mondo(2024).
Angela Fontana At the age of sixteen, Angela Fontana received a scholarship to attend the film school “La Ribalta” for two years. Alongside her interest in cinema, she also pursued music, studying at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella in Naples and later at the DAMS of Roma Tre University. In the meantime, she participated in numerous workshops, including the Troubleyn/Jan Fabre Teaching Group. She played the role of Viola in the 2016 film “Indivisibili” by Edoardo De Angelis, earning a nomination for the David di Donatello as Best Actress and winning the Biraghi Prize, as well as a nomination for Best Actress at the Golod D’Oro. She also won a Ciak d’Oro. She appeared in the film “Likemeback”, directed by Leonardo Guerra Seragnoli and presented in 2018 at the Locarno Film Festival. She played the lead role in the film “Lucania” by Gigi Roccati and in the movie “Due Soldati” directed by Marco Tullio Giordana. In “Io, Leonardo”, directed by Jesus Garces Lambert, she portrayed Cecilia Gallerani. She collaborated again with Edoardo De Angelis in the TV movie “Non Ti Pago”. On the theatre stage, she has performed in various productions, including “Il tempo e il Veleno”, directed by Francesco Saponaro. In music, she worked with Enzo Avitabile, winning a David di Donatello Award for Best Song in 2016. Her most recent work is “Basileia” by Isabella Torre, which was selected as the closing film of the 21st edition of the Giornate degli Autori.
Dario Toma is a lawyer specialized in corporate law and the third sector, as well as entertainment law, copyright, and audiovisual law. Since 2013, he has been a cultural entrepreneur in the cinema and entertainment sector. From 2015 to 2018, he led and collaborated on research and development projects for the production of audiovisual works tied to the Lucanian territory. Between 2018 and 2019, he organized the event “Cinemarte – dove l’Arte incontra il Cinema” in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts of Turin. He is the creator of the Matera Film Festival and has served as its president since 2019.