SESTRI LEVANTE – Over 9 thousand attendances, 230 guests, 64 screenings, 16 countries represented, 3 Oscar awards on the jury: difficult to make a Riviera International Film Festival more international than that. Now in its eighth edition, the event has confirmed last year’s record numbers with almost all the events “sold out”, thus making it necessary to reflect in view of next year, namely that more spaces are needed in the splendid Sestri Levante which has hosted it since 2017. “An open-air cinema, perhaps on the beach, to increase the audience at the screenings which this week saw a huge participation already from 9 in the morning at the Ariston Cinema”, explains the artistic director of the Riff to Primocanale Vito D’Onghia. And the creator of this beautiful initiative echoes him, Stefano Gallini Durantesaying that “more and more guests would like to come back to visit us, because they have fallen in love with Sestri Levante and our hospitality. To do this, however, we need to increase the spaces available for our events and the budgets to invest in the area, which then has a great comeback.”
In the meantime, however, the 2024 edition ended at the former convent of the Annunziata with the awards ceremony broadcast by Primocanale. The winner was the Spanish “The Quiet Maid” by Miguel Faus: the story of a Colombian maid, played by Paula Grimaldo, and her tireless work in a luxurious villa on the Costa Brava where a rich family of art dealers spend their holidays, which sees the protagonist strive to remain obedient and discreet by trusting in false promises of more dignified working conditions.
The jury also awarded the Norwegian Thea Hvistendedal as best director for the horror film Handling the Undead and the Italian Io e il Seco, by Gianluca Santoni, for the screenplay. The audience award also goes to the same film, while the best actors are the Czech Eliška Křenková from the thriller We have never been normal, who also receives the special award awarded for the first time this year by The Hollywood Reporter, and the English Jamie Flatters of “Black Dog” who, in turn, wins the Baia del Silenzio Award. The winner of the documentary competition is the Australian “The Giants” by Rachel Antony and Laurence Billiet, a journey to discover the life cycle of the giant trees of the country Down Under through immersive cinematography and incredible natural landscapes. The Sky Documentary Award goes to the American “Grasshopper Republic”, by Daniel McCabe. New to this eighth edition of Riff was the contest dedicated to short films, which was won by “The Fuse” by Kevin Haefelin, the story of a worn-out garbage collector struggling to make a living in the concrete arena of the Bronx.
Finally, the special prizes awarded to some of the main protagonists of this edition: the Icon Award could only go to Susan Sarandon, the Planet Star Award goes to the general secretary of the One Ocean Foundation Jan Pachner and the Vision Award, finally, is attributed to Andrew Dominik and Eva Orner presidents, respectively, of the film and of the documentary one.
Standing ovation for Susan Sarandon on the stage of the Riff awards ceremony who thanked the organizers for the beautiful days spent in Liguria.
