Presentation 2024
accordi @ DISACCORDI
International Short Film Festival – 21st Edition
It’ starting accordi @ DISACCORDI – International Short Film Festival – 21st edition in Naples.
From November 11 to 17, 2024, the twenty-first edition of accordi @ DISACCORDI – International Short Film Festival will be held in Naples, directed artistically by Pietro Pizzimento and Fabio Gargano; Festival organized by Movies Event association, under the coordination of Giuseppe Collela and with the contribution of the Campania Region through the regional fund for cinema and audiovisual.
One hundred and forty-one short films, documentaries, animated and experimental films, representing twenty-seven nations, with many works in absolute European and Italian premiere out of the four thousand forty-six works received from one hundred and twenty-two countries, which will be accompanied by meetings with the authors and actors of the works presented, are the program of this edition. The sections of six usual competitions (international, national, Campania Region, documentaries, animated short films, and environmentally themed films) will be joined again this year, in addition to the “Cortissimi” sections, and the out-of-competition section of experimental films coming from the United States, Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain, and many nations from the five continents, by a focus section on Italian-Canadian cinema curated by the international partner Italian Contemporary Film Festival. A selection of the Italian short films presented during the twenty-first edition of accordi @ DISACCORDI will be programmed in March 2025 in Canada during an event curated by the Italian Contemporary Film Festival.
The holding of this twenty-first edition, with free admission, will take place at the Corte dell’Arte of FOQUS – Fondazione Quartieri Spagnoli, in Via Portacarrese a Montecalvario , 69 in Naples, a location that will also host the final evening of the kermesse on November 17 with the awards ceremony and viewing of the winning short films in all categories of the festival competition.
Confirmed are the Festival’s juries, in addition to the audience jury that will award its prize and the artistic jury composed this year by the president, actress Cristina Donadio, and jurors director Edgardo Pistone and journalist Francesca Saturnino, as well as the jury of the event’s national partnership association AMC – Associazione Montatori Cinematografici e Televisivi (Association of Film and Television Editors), which will award its prize to the best editing to the films competing in the national sections and that of the Campania region. The national trade association has designated as jurors the editors: Brunella Perrotta, Edoardo Aleandri, Enrico Giovannone, Simone Lardieri and Simone Veneroso. The jury of honor composed of Guido Lombardi, Nero Nelson and Marcello Sannino will join the artistic jury in award decisions. The festival will benefit from the valuable collaboration of the Canadian Italian Contemporary Film Festival and, as always, from the valuable collaboration of the Experimental Center of Cinematography – Production, the National Short Film Center, AFIC – Association of Italian Film Festivals and the German, French and Belgian national film promotion agencies.
Special guests will be the presenter of UnoMattina, Gianni Ippoliti with actress Fabiana Latini, on Wednesday, November 13 at 6 p.m. to promote the shortest Italian short film produced so far: La porta in faccia.
Competing for the final victory in the international section will be Efrat Berger’s multi-award-winning short film Nothing Special at major international festivals; Iman Veisy’s Iranian Loser, about the damage done to the psyche of war veterans; Alexander Ophaug’s Norwegian film Kanskje, for deg, a sensitive story about a couple of poor children in an opulent society; and Ramazan Kılıç’s Turkish short film Things unheard of. The lion’s share, with no less than three films in the section finals, will be played by Spain with its very rich and interesting short film production: Night Show by Cristina Mediero, Tribu by Carlos Gómez-Trigo and Zheimer by Álvaro Gabarrón.
From the recent Venice International Film Festival comes the section’s most representative short film: Andrea Gatopoulos’s The Eggregores’ Theory, a story that reflects, through a dystopian, sci-fi future, on very central themes of our time, using the device of artificial intelligence. The distortions caused by ChatGPT will be reflected on with Gianluca Zonta’s The Aquarium, the drama experienced by migrants with Michele D’Anca’s Distress Call and the fragility of the new generations with Lena Rastegaeva’s Toys, and the unfair practices practiced on the elderly by some brokerage companies with utilities with Michele Cacace’s short film, Free Market. Nicolò Parodi’s Il Bicchiere della Staffa, Valerio Manisi’s Era Ora!, Alessandro Marinaro’s Luca, Fuori Sincrono and Kristian Xipolias’ Via delle Rose 36 close the section.
Surprising and very rich, as usual, is the section of short films produced or shot in Campania, which expresses the remarkable creative vivacity of Campania’s film production and the city of Partenope. The evolution of the new generations and their relationship with the world will be reflected upon with two intriguing short documentaries Api by Luca Ciriello and La Rabbia Nostra by Lorenzo Giroffi. And also with Alex Marano’s La giustificazione will reflect on the Neapolitan province of the 1990s as a place of degradation and melancholy where children, the main protagonists of this scenario, learn to navigate the unwritten rules of the road, the only code that seems to govern daily life in these areas forgotten by time and prosperity. A metaphor for the forced passage from youth to old age in a disturbing drama, against the backdrop of a Neapolitan province abandoned to itself instead will be witnessed with Shanghai by Mariadiletta Coco and Andrea Bifulco starring Nunzia Schiano in excellent form. Engaging the audience will be the stories of Branchie by Giovanni Bellotti and A Dark Tale by Vincenzo Lamagna. And fine Campania film products will also be appreciated such as: Clap by Antonio Porcaro, Kvara – A Story of Love and Ball by Raffaele Iardino, Mario Leombruno and Us, Them the Others by Vincenzo Fortunato Cassone.
A quarter of the Festival’s programming accordi @ DISACCORDI, this year is dedicated to animation cinema, which saw the participation in the Competition of excellent works in both the classic and stop-motion types. The highlight of the section is the new work by Bruno Bozzetto, the award-winning animator, designer and director born in 1938, who at 86 years of age gives his audience Sapiens?, three animated shorts that invite reflection on how much the appellation sapiens can legitimately be associated with that of “human being.” Then there will be previews of films in competition at the recent Annecy International Animation Festival: The Girl and the Pot by Valentina Homem and Echoes by Robinson Drossos.
For documentaries, several films were chosen again this year, touching on a wide variety of themes instead of focusing on one focus. Among the short documentaries presented in competition will be Silvia Maggi’s film Valery Alexanderplatz about the life of Italian trans activist Valérie Taccarelli, filmed in Berlin’s Alexanderplatz square. The story begins with Milva, the popular Italian diva and her most famous song “Alexanderplatz.” However, few know that this song is actually an adaptation of Alfredo Cohen’s song “Valery,” released in 1978. “Valery” was a 15-year-old trans girl, known today as Valérie Taccarelli. And, among others, the documentary Mater Procida signed by Giordana Moltedo. The film is a poetic journey guided by some of the poems of Lena Loffredo, an 80-year-old teacher who has educated many generations of Procidans. To be exalted is the island in a dimension where nostalgia and loneliness blend with natural elements that make the island of Procida unique, with its enveloping sunrises and sunsets and to enhance the wonderful colors of the houses of Corricella and the breath of the sea of Chiaiolella.
Finally to close the competition sections the one on environmental issues and climate change. A 360-degree look at the state of Planet Earth, contemplating even beauties that may perhaps one day definitely disappear.
In the official selection there will be no shortage of looks toward experimental cinema and very short films up to three minutes in length. The graphics for the event have been curated by a talented young illustrator, Davide Arpaia. Workshops on the language of the short film format will be held, as usual, in some Neapolitan high schools.