(RI)MONTAGGI. CINEMA THOROUGH IMAGES 2021

The (Ri)Montaggi  Competition is the first one in Italy reserved for video essays, the new form of film criticism in pictures that can not only become viral on the Internet but is also used as an education tool in the most advanced universities. For the 2021 edition, the sidebar’s curators Chiara Grizzaffi and Andrea Minuz shortlisted eight video essays/re-cuts/mash-ups/remixes made by students from universities and film schools from all over the world. This year, the competition opened up to high-school students too.

According to the jury composed of Elena Marcheschi, Andrea Miele, and Elio Ugenti, the winner is:

STAIRS

by Adele Insardà (Tor Vergata University)

With the following motivation:

“The film manages to successfully marry the analytic purposes of the video essay and a strong aesthetic system, thus involving and enthralling the audience. Stairs is grounded in extensive research capable of creating relevant and original connections about a symbolically dense recurring motif in film history, i.e., the image of stairs.”

The jury also assigned a Special Mention to:

NEMMENO IL FIUME LO PORTAVA 

by Alessandro Filippa (ITIS Leonardo Da Vinci high school) 

With the following motivation:

“For the courage and maturity proven with respect to an extremely complex poetics like that of Pier Paolo Pasolini; besides the systematic willingness to use all the visual potential of the video essay, sound was also employed to construct an articulate, original, and layered audio-visual discourse. Nemmeno il fiume lo portava is a profound and fascinating film, especially considering the young age of its maker.”

The eight films that shortlisted at the 2021 competition are:

Oranges, Power and Death in The Godfather Trilogy

by Edoardo Spallazzi

Sapienza Università di Roma

In the mood for love: A visual poem

by Giulia Tronconi 

University of Warwick

Devils in the Deep

by Ruth Brandon

Tel Aviv University

In the Name of Morality: The Philosophy of Choice in A Clockwork Orange

by Mariolina Falone

John Cabot University di Roma

Mass Message Medium

by Ritika Kaushik

University of Chicago

Loneliness, sexual alienation, nihilism, a comparison between Shame and Help me Eros

by Elisa Cherchi 

IULM Milano

The Florida Project (2016): Childhood Point of View and Temporalities

by Kelsey Draper

Liverpool John Moores University

The Lighthouse

by Leonardo Govoni

University of Groningen