The two films were awarded by the International Competition Jury, composed of Ted Hope, Massimo Cantini Parrini and Signe Byrne Sørensen, with the following motivation: "Two films who redefine the meaning of home, and point out our problems of borders, that show how despite our hardships and struggles, joy, happiness, and connection is always within our reach".
Best Film Award | International Competition | Biografilm 2024
di Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó
Motivation:
It is a film of great beauty. It founds its aesthetic in its subject and delivered a disciplined and personal portrait of its participants. The attention paid to light and space and its treatment of both home and landscape came with a huge aesthetic respect – a special pleasure. It is also a film that slowly digs deeper into its subject and through personal and very honest encounters with people – men and woman, young and old -- who are given time to talk about their lives and longings to reveal the discourse at play in the states policy. It points to the issue of borders and how citizenship given to some and not to others can keep those who are denied their passport in a perpetual state of imprisonment.
Hera “Nuovi Talenti” Award | International Competition | Biografilm 2024
di Mohamed Jabaly
Motivation:
A film that captures today in all of its joys and pains -- driven throughout by a filmmaker in process discovering his life, his community and his art form. The energy and spirit is contagious, reminding us of the joy of creativity. A filmmaker who is both totally confident, yet vulnerable in his art, and showing us glimpses of the world that society encourages us to forget – particularly the real life in Gaza in times of crises. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL expands the meaning of family and home and how there will always be those that thankfully possess a willingness to let people in, even if the bigger society does everything in its power to stop these people, connect. THEY may set borders, but our hearts and minds will always cross them.
The Biografilm Italia section jury composed of Mattia Colombo, Simona Dolce and Sara Ferro presented four awards
Best Film BPER Award | Biografilm Italia 2024
THE ROLLER, THE LIFE, THE FIGHT
di Elettra Bisogno, Hazem Alqaddi
Special Mention BPER | Biografilm Italia 2024
di Valerio Lo Muzio, Michael Petrolini
Motivation:
It is striking because it shows the Bologna suburbs but chooses to do so through the personal story of an ordinary girl and her passion for boxing, and the community that revolves around her, populated by faces that are hard to forget.The many stories of inclusion that make up this fresco create an authentic and vital cross-section of the Bolognina neighborhood, making it a symbol of so many Italian suburbs. It is a political manifesto entirely devoid of rhetoric and ideologies.
Hera “Nuovi Talenti” Award | Biografilm Italia 2024
Motivation:
Special Mention Hera “Nuovi Talenti” Award | Biografilm Italia 2024
Motivation:
It is important that for a debut feature, the director chose to explore the much under-reported issue of caregivers in Italy and to show the sacrifice of those who leave their loved ones to work in other people’s families.The film is an intimate and sensitive account of the personal stories of two women, very different from each other, but bonded by the same drama.
The Manifesto Award is presented to the best Contemporary Lives film by the Jury formed by representatives of a number of realities that stand out on the territory for the social impact of the projects they carry out. The members are Chiara Dalle Molle (Arca di Noè), Eleonora Zavatti (Casa delle donne per non subire violenza di Bologna), Elia Caiconti (Cassero LGBTI+ Center), Stefano Boring (Gruppo Trans), Blerta Hoxha (Next Generation Italy), Claudia Sciommeri (Period Think Tank), Marta Melina (SMK Videofactory), Lucia Imbriaco (WeWorld).
Manifesto Award | Biografilm Contemporary Lives 2024
Motivation:
The whole Contemporary Lives selection offered us documentaries capable of shaking consciences, igniting debates, showing us contradictions and sometimes opposing points of view, through powerful stories that speak to us of violence, oppression and suffering, but also of life, desire, self-determination, and rebellion. Biografilm's Manifesto Award goes to the film that for the jury has the greatest potential to generate, in the viewer, a change, which is the ultimate goal, we believe, of socially themed documentaries. We have decided to award Stray Bodies by Elina Psikou, for the following reasons: the documentary addresses the theme of self-determination by interweaving it with other sub-themes such as health protection, freedom of choice and its link to economic privilege, different accessibility to rights within different states of the European Union, and the growing threat of oppressive and sovereigntist policies in Europe. “Stray Bodies” represents an opportunity to bring to collective attention the importance of the right to self-determination and to rethink Europe as a place of shared progressive thinking.
The Young Critics Award was given by the Young Jury composed of students from the DAMS and CITEM degree courses at the University of Bologna
Young Critics Award | Biografilm 2024
di Kinshuk Surjan
Motivation:
Blowing from west to east / the wind / going from east to west / the moon, /from heaven to earth / the rain / from the earth to the sky / the dust.”
(Abbas Kiarostami)
Marching in the Dark blows its conflicts with whispers and silences. With an experience of resistance that is as unprecedented as it is projected to the universal. The resistance of widows who find not simply the strength to react to a bereavement, but the courage necessary to fight against their subalternity. The intimacy expressed by long shots and dilated sequences. The stifled laughter and tears that scream their resistance.Marching in the dark, thus, pierces the veil of the medium, projecting us into a subjectivity, into a struggle, into history. That’s why it’s our winner.
Bring The Change is a project by Arca di Noè Cooperativa Sociale, realised thanks to the contribution of Sistema di Accoglienza e Integrazione (SAI), in collaboration with Biografilm Festival and SMK Factory - active since 2009 in the field of production and distribution of documentary cinema. The project, a path of 7 meetings to approach the language of cinema, involves the 2RMM class and the Metropolitan Poetry Slam group of the Aldini Valeriani Institute in Bologna and a group made up of vulnerable beneficiaries of the SAI project and some people from the Cadriano employment workshop of the Arca di Noè social cooperative.
Bring The Change Award | Biografilm 2024
di Matteo Parisini
Motivation:
The film touches on themes that affect us firsthand on a daily basis: bullying, the difficulty of responding to the aggressiveness of our surroundings, the sorrow we feel at being subjected to injustice that often turns into depression and confusion, and feeling inadequately understood by adults. We appreciated the director's ability to bring out this lack of understanding, skillfully dosing voices and presences in the editing. Thanks to this film we reflected on how we can react to this: with listening, dialogue and friendship. We thank the director for succeeding in representing our world authentically and spontaneously, and freeing us from the cage of labels and stereotypes. We felt represented and listened to. Thank you Matteo!
Tutta un'altra altra storia is the social inclusion educational project dedicated to boys and girls in marginalised situations that this year involves the girls of the Oikos educational community.
Tutta un’altra storia Award | Biografilm 2024
di Deborah Faraone Mennella
Motivation:
We award this film because we liked its message and how JDL draws. We like her murals because everyone can see them. Her murals convey a lot of pain but also a lot of strength, just like the artist who, despite all the difficulties, moved forward with her head held high and bringing out the best she could from herself. To JDL we would like to say: never give up, always be yourself, you have so much to offer and express! We wish we had a strength like yours in our lives!
The Arci Ucca Special Jury, founded by members of Arci Ucca, awarded the distribution prize "L'Italia che non si vede. Rassegna Itinerante di Cinema del Reale" and 1000 € to the best film of the Biografilm Italia Competition.
Ucca Award - l’Italia che non si vede | Biografilm Italia 2024
LETTRE À MA FILLE DEPUIS LE PAYS DES FEMMES
di Silvia Staderoli
Motivation:
Through a filmed diary addressed to her teenage daughter, the author takes us on an emotional journey that addresses gender-based violence, women's personal and collective challenges, and offers a powerful testimony of courage and resilience that interweaves the intimate with the political.
The TOP DOC - The beauty of documentary distribution prize, awarded by the jury composed of content creators Attilio Palmieri, Giulia Quintabà and Matilde Santantonio for the best film in the Biografilm Italia Competition, goes to Sindrome Italia by Ettore Mengozzi.
Premio TOP DOC - Il bello del documentario | Biografilm Italia 2024
di Ettore Mengozzi
Motivation:
We chose to award the prize to Sindrome Italia because the choice of the subject was first and foremost a discovery for the jury: women from Eastern Europe who have migrated to Italy to work as caregivers who share a psychophysical disorder caused by working conditions and life away from their families. Also striking is the portrayal of the other side of the coin: the lives of second-generation children who have to deal with the choices and marginalization of their mothers, which in some cases also cause fractures in their relationships and great grief. The theme of immigration is also very strong: Italy is confirmed as a society dependent on immigration but which not only does not want immigration but also treats badly the very people it needs. The originality of the documentary lies not only in the excellent level of production, but above all in the originality of the theme, which, brought to a streaming platform, is something totally new for users and can generate healthy discussions and dialogue online.
DocPoint Helsinki Award | Biografilm Italia 2024
di Valerio Lo Muzio, Michael Petrolini
Motivation:
It was a real privilege to watch all these wonderful Italian films, all of which gave me great insight into the concerns and preoccupations of local filmmakers. They will all certainly have successful festival journeys across the globe. The DocPoint Award this year goes to a film which is deeply cinematic. The filmmakers have portrayed their protagonists in stunning cinematography, intimately but always respectfully. The struggles of the family the film depicts are universally recognisable and relatable, but what the viewer walks away with after the movie is how healing it is that we have each other, that we have community. I can not think of a more vital message in today's polarised Europe, We are very happy to invite the film ROMINA to be a part of the official DocPoint Helsinki programme in 2025.
Audience Award | International Competition | Biografilm 2024
di Kinshuk Surjan
Audience Award | Biografilm Italia 2024
di Valerio Lo Muzio, Michael Petrolini
Audience Award | Biografilm Contemporary Lives 2024
di Davide Lomma
Audience Award | Biografilm Art & Music 2024
di Paolo Fazzini, Francesco Principini
di Sean Price Williams
