44TH INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY “SERGIO AMIDEI”

by PREMIO AMIDEI

In July, for over 40 years, the best international cinema and the 44th International Award for Best Screenplay “Sergio Amidei” – organized by the “Sergio Amidei” Cultural Association, by the Dams – Audiovisual, Media and Entertainment Disciplines, Interuniversity Course at the University of Udine and by the Palazzo del Cinema-Hiša Filma Association under the patronage of the Italian Federation of Arthouse Cinema FICE, Agis Tre Venezie, ANAC and the 100autori Association – is preparing for the 2025 edition that will animate the heart of Gorizia from 17 to 23 July, with screenings, appointments and events for everyone, from passionate cinephiles to younger viewers with their families.

The 44th International Award for Best Screenplay “Sergio Amidei” will once again embrace the whole city, making Gorizia once again the European capital of film writing. Starting from the 2021 edition, the screenings and meetings of the Amidei Prize have inhabited the city, in many of its places: in the arena of Piazza Vittoria, in the halls of Kinemax Gorizia, in the Mediateca.GO “Ugo Casiraghi” as part of the Palazzo del Cinema – Hiša, in the street “of Creativity” Rastello, in BorGO Cinema and also this year it will be so, together with the renovated evening venue of the Park of Palazzo Coronini Cronberg.

The choice of an open-air arena for the evening screenings in Piazza Vittoria, the heart of the city of Gorizia, was also a success for the highly symbolic aspect that the square has taken on as a strategic place for the planning of the four-year period 2022-2025, and in the year of GO!2025 strongly characterized by the green Isonzo, the Amidei Prize also wants to surround itself with the greenery of the Coronini Cronberg Park, recently restored, its elegance, its silence and soft lights, precious allies to fully enjoy the magic of Cinema.

For 44 years, the Amidei Prize, in the wake of the great screenwriter from whom it took its name, has made Gorizia the most important city in Europe for film writing. Here come the major Italian and foreign screenwriters, here we discuss what, how and why to tell. Here we talk about independent writing, public memoirs, the training of young people, auteur cinema and criticism. In Gorizia, in practice, while we see what cinema produces today, we talk about what we will see tomorrow.

The Amidei Prize has been committed for over forty years to the promotion and transversal dissemination of film culture, from the student, to the cinema expert, from the screenwriter to the simple enthusiast. Also for the 2025 edition, the hospitality of students and researchers from Italian and European universities and schools that have courses of study mainly dedicated to the art of cinema will be renewed and it is estimated to host a hundred students and researchers and to welcome more than 120 specialized accredited.

The Award also enjoys the patronage of AGIS – Italian General Association of Entertainment, ANAC – National Association of Film Authors, 100autori and FICE – Italian Federation of Arthouse Cinema.

7 are the screenplays that compete for the International Award for Best Screenplay “Sergio Amidei Award”, selected by the jury composed of directors and screenwriters Marco Risi, Francesco Munzi, Francesco Bruni and Massimo Gaudioso, screenwriters Marco Pettenello and Doriana Leondeff, actress Giovanna Ralli and producer Silvia D’Amico

• Vittoria, screenplay by Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman
• Le Déluge – The Last Days of Marie Antoinette, screenplay by Filippo Gravino and Gianluca Jodice
• The Magpie Thief, screenplay by Robert Guédiguian and Serge Valletti
• Naples – New York, screenplay by Gabriele Salvatores
• El Paraiso, screenplay by Enrico Maria Artale
• Conclave, screenplay by Peter Straughan
• Bird, screenplay by Andrea Arnold
  
  

But the Award is not just the competition, but a kaleidoscope of film proposals, also and above all aimed at the younger generations. In fact, in view of the European Capital of Culture 2025, the Sergio Amidei Award has activated a new collaboration with the Giffoni Film Festival starting from 2024, which has seen a group of Giffoners, i.e. the legendary Giffoni jurors, guests of the Amidei Prize, and a larger number will be hosted during the 2025 edition. The Giffoni jurors, together with the other students of the “Leo Benvenuti” screenwriting school in Rome and the “Carlo Mazzacurati” film school in Padua, who have already been participating in the Prize’s masterclasses for some time, have already worked together on the theme of film writing by developing short audiovisual products that were then presented as part of the activities of Giffoni Experience 2024 and expect new important collaborative goals also in 2025.

The collaboration with Cross-border Film school is also renewed with workshops and masterclasses, an innovative way of training and specialization of new and young professionals aimed at enhancing young talents from the Region and the territories of neighboring Slovenia. Five young people selected through participation in a call will now have the opportunity to participate in the activities of the 44th Amidei Prize.

Going to discover the sections that will make up the Prize, we point out “Neuropathies: cinema and the treatment of traumas of the European body” a special section with films – more or less recent – that tell some of the deepest contradictions that cross contemporary Europe. Some titles have directly to do with the theme of borders, others with more general issues concerning immaterial borders, inequalities, racism. During the section there will also be a moment of discussion, in the presence of some authors of the selected films, to discuss how the seventh art has contributed to telling and moving European consciousness on the great issues of our present. They are expected as guests of the section Andrea Segre, Francesca Mannocchi, Daniele Gaglianone and Massimo Gaudioso.

A section that has been interested in long-running writing for some time also finds a space for the Prize for TV and the web, where the strength of the script is felt with surprising intensity. The section generally offers the viewing and in-depth study of one or more contemporary television series, which has particularly distinguished itself for the quality and originality of writing. Also for the 2025 edition, the section will be curated by Sara Martin of the University of Parma and the series chosen by the curator has already had great success and wide national prominence. The series chosen for this year is in fact M, The Son of the Century, directed by Joe Wright, written by Stefano Bises, Davide Serino and Antonio Scurati, with Luca Marinelli protagonist. And who knows, maybe some of its important names will be able to join us in Gorizia.

There will also be a section much loved by the people of Gorizia, PRIVATE STORIES, PUBLIC MEMORIES, focused on the research and enhancement of archival materials, in particular those preserved at the Mediateca.GO “Ugo Casiraghi” in Gorizia which have been enhanced by the philological and creative recovery work carried out by the laboratory La camera ottica of the University of Udine. This year we will see the project of Lorenzo Pallotta, film director and producer, and Christopher Buchholz, actor and director, who present the masterclass/meeting “Glimpses into Time – Cinema and Memory”. This workshop focuses on the need to rediscover the archival material of the media library of Gorizia and Friuli Venezia Giulia, highlighting how these materials are fundamental to understanding who we are today.

Always in synergy with other important cultural players in the area, the custom is renewed that sees the Studiofaganel art gallery propose a dedicated exhibition, hosted in the spaces of the Palazzo del Cinema – Hiša Filma and the collaboration with the Sartoria Sociale La Collina Coop. Soc. for the Festival’s gadgets, made with recycled materials. The goal of the collaboration is a social act, to demonstrate that events such as the Amidei Award can be a vehicle for inclusive and environmentally friendly social activities.

The Amidei Prize also recalls the collaborations with Far East Film Festival, La Cappella Underground, Trieste Film Festival, Giornate della Luce, Kinoatelje Association, France Odeon, Cross-border Association, Transmedia Srl and ANAC.

Everything else, so much, that the Prize offers this year we will discover around Gorizia, among the many screenings and meetings scheduled in the program.