UNDER, UNDER, UNDER

BEST IN SHORTS 2024 – Contemporary Italian Animation
curator Pierpaolo Loffreda

BEST IN SHORTS has now reached its 10th edition at the Pesaro Film Festival. The non-competitive section is dedicated to inventive, moving works made by Italian animation filmmakers over the past few months: “Contemporary Italian Animation,” literally.
There is a considerable number of BEST IN SHORTS this year, something which proves there is a very wide, and high-quality, offer.
There are mainly works made by young and very young filmmakers, very capable beginners, who are being trained in animation film at Schools, Institutes, and Fine Arts Academies. The selection also includes the latest, qualified productions of some well-known filmmakers – whose award-winning work has already circulated abroad – with whom the Festival has a special connection: Igor Imhoff and Donato Sansone, friends of our Festival who had each a dedicated complete retrospective and a meeting.

All the creators selected work like artisans, for many months, even years, in order to express themselves and present films of great imagination and originality, usually at festivals. These works are extremely diverse in terms of language, style, and techniques, which include traditional solutions such as hand drawing and stop motion but also digital systems. We believe all of them give the idea of the level of vitality, creativity, innovation, and research that many film-makers in our country are able to express in spite of the lack of means and the scant attention received by the Italian establishment. Creative animation in Italy certainly is a world apart, an almost clandestine activity; young talents scarcely manage to show their works to an audience or even find a niche. Thus, it’s almost like a secret society for the devout. Unlike in Europe, there aren’t clients or distributors in this sector. The filmmakers rely on home-made production and an underground circuit of friends, acquaintances, connoisseurs, and festivals. Including us, the first.

BEST IN SHORTS – Contemporary Italian Animation was made possible this year thanks to the fundamental partnerships with the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino, and the municipality of Priero, the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, the Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche in Urbino (with the animation courses conducted by Mara Cerri and Magda Guidi), the Associazione Libera Marchigiana Animatori, the Piedmont school of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, and the Liceo artistico – Scuola del Libro in Urbino.

Oblivion – La Menade di Igor Imhoff, 2023, 5’58”
Oblivion – Mervyn di Igor Imhoff, 2023, 3’33”
Silver Bullet di Igor Imhoff, 2023, 3’23”
On and Off di Chiara Gentili, 2023, 1’07”
I giorni della merla di Claudia Varano, Camila Derossi, Giada Gaia Trudu, Beatrice Ricci, Sofia Lucarelli, Alessandra Ianniciello, Alessandro Simoncelli, Marta Freddio, Alessia Vannucci, Luca Di Sciullo, 2023, 2’53”
Batrachia di Lorenzo Silano, 2023, 6’48”
Under, under, under di Riccardo Fraccascia, 2024, 8’57”
Giovanna and the Big Peacock di Maria Zilli, 2024, 3’28”
Pioggia nuda di Erika Giantomasi, 2022, 2’02”
El sabado en la boqueria di Alessia Angelini, 2024, 1’05”
Cotone di Lucia Catalini, 2024, 2’17”
Shower Tunes di Sara Tealdi, 2024, 0’41”
Sina and the Eel di Anna Giulia Picoco, 2023, 0’59’’
Le gobbe nel giardino di Luna Olivier, Rachele Marrazzo, Marco Caverni, 2024, 1’46”
Graziano e la giraffa di Fabio Orlando, Tommaso Zerbi, 2022, 6’35”
C’mon Tigre di Donato Sansone, 2022, 3’31”
Just A Monday di Donato Sansone, 2023, 2’22”
Il sogno di Donato Sansone, 2023, 1’12”
Pornostages di Donato Sansone, Simone Brillarelli, Enrico Ascoli, 2023, 0’59”
La mia ombra di dubbio di Alice Curatolo, 2024, 2'10"