Film Festival Pianeta Mare, double award to director Iacopo Patierno. “Darwin-Dohrn” Award to Undersea, the Danish film by Jannik Splidsboel. All the numbers of the first edition.
42 works in nine sections, 40 Italian and international guests, over 2 thousand participants in attendance, concerts, scientific talks, round tables, matinees with schools and a special one-minute smartphone film making section for talents under 30. These are the numbers of the great success of the first edition of the Film Festival Pianeta Mare Internazionale di Napoli, born this year on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, an Italian public research body for marine biology, ecology and biotechnology, chaired by Professor Chris Bowler.
“The curious and happy looks of so many young video makers, of innovative Italian and non-Italian directors, of young researchers and students of marine biology or film schools, of children, families, teachers have shown us that the idea of a film festival dedicated to the sea has proven to be a winning one”. This is how Max Mizzau Perczel, president of the Pianeta Mare Darwin Dohrn cultural association, celebrates the success numbers of the first edition that took place in Naples in two symbolic places. Symbol of science (the Darwin-Dohrn Museum also with over 30 thousand students from 786 cities and 1138 schools connected online for the virtual mass visit organized thanks to CODYTRIP) and cinema (the historic Academy Astra hall), to which was added, in parallel, the Museo della Centrale dell'Acqua di Milano MM, which hosted the screening of a selection of the shorts in competition and the films with smartphones of the young people under 30 of the Creative Laboratory of the Film Festival directed by the 26-year-old director Valerio Ferrara, awarded for his short film at the Cannes Film Festival 2022.
The Festival, organized by the Pianeta Mare Darwin Dohrn cultural association, the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station and the Dohrn Foundation, with the contribution of the Campania Region and the Campania Region Film Commission, with the patronage of the European Commission and the Municipality of Naples and with numerous scientific and also international cultural events, such as that of the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in New York directed by Christopher Gervais, ended with the awarding of four prizes, two special mentions and two prestigious ad personam honours.
The prizes of the jury chaired by Antonietta De Lillo
The international jury composed of Antonietta De Lillo, as president, Gina Annunziata, Titta Fiore, Ado Hasanovic and Matthew Frost, awarded the “Darwin-Dohrn” Award for best film to “Undersea” by Jannik Splidsboel (Denmark, 2022), who came to Naples to collect it. This is the motivation: “for the technical-visual quality and for the ability, within the framework of real cinema, to build a compelling and positive narrative around the emblematic story of a woman who, after the traumatic experience of the wars lived and immortalized as a photographer, rediscovers the marine environment, recovering the deep relationship with herself and nourishing her desire for a community of human beings that is just and in harmony with nature.”
The “Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn” Award for best short film went to “Reduction” by Réka Anna Szakály (Hungary, 2021) “for the innovative trait, in animation as in narrative construction, of a post-apocalyptic story that focuses on both human solidarity and the best weapon to rebuild a sustainable world and an ecosystem in balance between nature and the needs of human beings.”
The jury also awarded a special mention to the documentary “Man Kind Man” by Vico Equense director Iacopo Patierno (Italy, 2021) “for the wise and effective narration of the stories of those who, using their skills and human qualities, fight, in institutions such as the Anton Dohrn Station and in a complex territory such as Campania, for the protection of the sea and its creatures”.
The prizes of the university students' jury
Also very significant are the awards given by the student jury composed thanks to the collaboration of the Federico II University of Naples, the Suor Orsola Benincasa University and the Academy of Fine Arts of Naples. A jury that awarded the Best Film Award to “Man Kind Man” by Iacopo Patierno “for the storytelling, directing work that lasted seven years and the power of the message through an authentic and raw story” and the Best Short Film Award to “Footsteps on the Wind” by Maya Sanbar, Faga Melo and Gustavo Leal (Great Britain, 2021) “for the pace of the narration and the animation technique, as well as the original soundtrack by Sting that accompanies the viewer to dig into his own emotions.”
Special Awards and Honours
Finally, the Steering Committee of the Pianeta Mare Darwin Dohrn Cultural Association which manages the Film Festival (composed of Ferdinando Boero, Max Mizzau Perczel and Franco Salvatore), has decided to award a special mention to the short film “Il pesce toro” by Alberto Palmiero (Italy, 2020) “for the technical quality of a short film, young and the fruit of an Italian film school, which is able to tell of a youthful discomfort that would like to calm down in the imaginative and open horizon of the sea.”
Two special honors: to the Mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, “for having welcomed with enthusiasm and passion the Pianeta Mare International Film Festival in the city of Naples”, and to Professor Roberto Danovaro, one of the world's leading experts on ocean health, president of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn for nine years, until last July, “for being among the inspirers of the Film Festival”.
“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible, said Frank Zappa”. This is how Ferdinando Boero, president of the Pianeta Mare Film Festival and the Dohrn Foundation, celebrates the success of the Festival, already announcing an encore in the same period for next year. “With a wide and prestigious synergic network, with this Festival we have truly done something innovative and important, as it seems to have been perceived by those who really know about film festivals. And we have managed to do it with our ideas as laymen of the film industry combined with the wise guidance of experts: a mixture that has proven to be a winner and is ready to be improved and enriched for the next edition”.
Article published on 11 October 2022 - 12:06
