Venice – The new edition of the Filming Italy Venice Awards was held on September 1 in Venice, in the Sala degli Stucchi of the prestigious Hotel Excelsor. “We carry out a continuous growth research to try to have the widest possible panorama for the audience”, confirms founder Tiziana Rocca, “awarding Italian cinema, TV series, directors and producers.
The godmother was Laura Chiatti, an actress who has worked with directors such as Sofia Coppola and Oscar winners such as Paolo Sorrentino, Giuseppe Tornatore. The winner of the Filming Italy Achievement Music Award is Riccardo Cocciante, a singer-songwriter who is “one of the number one in international Italian music,” says Rocca, “his musical Notre Dame de Paris was a success abroad and now his collaboration with films is increasing more and more. It gives me great pleasure to award him because music and cinema are a combination”. Christopher Lambert receives the Filming Italy Achievement International Award: “He is an incredible talent, he has made some great movies and has given us so much”.
This year, space has also been given to the production sector: “We also added the Filming Italy Producer Italian Award because, as PGE in Los Angeles, we need to give visibility to producers who invest and deal with the whole production chain. When a product is successful, the spotlight goes to the director and the actors, and the producers are mentioned less. I want to shine the spotlight on the producers: the award gives prominence to those who take risks with projects that can go well or badly. I wanted to do this to show the global landscape of what audiovisual production is”.
This year’s honorees include actors Alessandro Nivola – in competition in Venice with The Brutalist – and Franco Nero, Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell, actresses Margherita Buy, Isabella Ferrari, Sonia Bergamasco and Cristiana Dell’Anna, star of the hit film Cabrini. Other winners are Annabel Scholey, Elijah Rowen and Jack McEvoy for their roles in the TV series Vikings; Sergio Castellitto, Miriam Leone, star of the TV series I Leoni di Sicilia, Alba Rohrwacher, Asia Argento, Barbara Ronchi, Kasia Smutniak, Vittoria Puccini, Matilde Gioli, Silvia D’Amico, Vinicio Marchioni. The prize is awarded in collaboration with the monthly magazine CIAK and the jury includes Alberto Barbera, Artistic Director of the Venice International Film Festival.
“It was a great event that brought together different talents – said Rocca – Our goal is also to bring the different generations into dialog. We are all involved in daily activities and the Filming Italy Venice Award is also a time to meet each other”.
Tiziana Rocca and the director of the Festival. Tiziana Rocca is one of the few film festival directors in the world. She founded Filming Italy Los Angeles, Filming Italy Sardegna and Filming Italy Venice: “Being a woman complicates things, you have to work twice as hard, but I am used to that. And never give up. Then I’ve been doing Filming Italy Venice Award for many years, I’ve been doing this job for 26 years, it’s hard to always stay on top, always improve and be a reference point for the most prestigious events. It is a great challenge, a great effort and a great sacrifice, because it really means never giving up for a moment, leaving nothing to chance, taking care of every detail. Growth is always more difficult because you have to surpass yourself”.
