It is the director of photography Davide Leone, for There’s still tomorrow by Paola Cortellesi, the winner of Il Quarzo di Spilimbergo-Light Award, the prize that the Le Giornate della Luce festival of Spilimbergo – created by Gloria De Antoni who directs it together with Donato Guerra – has been awarding for ten years to the best cinematography of a film Italian of the last season. Last night, Saturday 8 June, the awards ceremony at the Cinema Miotto, hosted by the journalist Maurizio Mannoni and Gloria De Antoni.
The jury – headed by Monica Guerritore and composed of the author of photography Luan Ujkaj Amelio, the still photographer and photojournalist Gianni Fiorito, the director of the cross-border film festival Poklon viziji/Homage to a vision Mateja Zorn and the journalist film critic and television author Oreste De Fornari – decided to reward Davide Leone because “Paola Cortellesi’s film – the story of a woman of the people in post-war Rome, a story of humiliation, submission and rebellion against the patriarchal order, a typical and at the same time unique story – would not have won such wide acclaim without the jumps of tone and style orchestrated by the director, capable of moving from drama to comedy to musical, from realism to caricature. All this was made possible, at least in part, by the work of the director of photography Davide Leone, who used black and white in homage to the look of the films of the time (the neorealist grisaille), going as far as, as a true virtuoso, to adopting the square format (four thirds) in the opening scenes. A strategy of irony (more or less underground) that manages to make us suspend our disbelief and to suggest how the story of this Roman, oppressed and humiliated (but not forever), is both remote and very current “.
Davide Leone also won the Audience Quartz.
Lorenzo Casadio Vannucci for The oceans are the true continents, by Tommaso Santambrogio, wins Il Quarzo all’Opera Prima, which recognizes and celebrates the important contribution of photography authors and filmmakers who are often penalized by careless distribution. «Last year there were beautiful first works that unfortunately had a bumpy life in theaters and little attention in the awards season. I am therefore enthusiastic that for the first edition the award goes to Lorenzo for his wonderful, elegant and delicate work, in a film that deserves to have a long and happy life. Long live young talent” declares Daria D’Antonio, who created this new award category with the Days of Light.
Lorenzo Casadio Vannucci also won Youth Quartz, awarded by the Youth Jury chaired by Jordi Bransuela and made up of 25 students from Italian and European cinema schools and universities (Liceo Rossellini Rome, CSC Rome, Fondazione Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Zelig Bolzano , ESCAC Barcelona, University of Film and TV Munich, Academy of Film and TV Vienna, University of Film Belgrade). This is the motivation: “For having followed the idea of beauty and decadence given by the relationship between black and white, scenography and composition, for the photographic, naturalistic approach and the way in which the chiaroscuro passage accompanies and welcomes the stories and the spectator into the universe of these characters ; for the complete restitution of the image of feelings and sense of beauty, thanks to its composition, the way in which it interacts with the characters and therefore the story. For the humanistic approach; contemplative, participatory with which he expresses the events of the human being with extreme respect”.
The Golden Quartz for Lifetime Achievement 2024 was awarded to Vittorio Storaro “For the philosophical approach with which he practiced an art and a profession, for the incalculable theoretical contribution offered to the Seventh Art, for the legendary goals achieved, for the incessant study to which he dedicated his life, for poetry and ’emotion that he gave and continues to give to the spectator.”
In recent days, Il Quarzo di Spilimbergo – Short Lights (in collaboration with Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival and Sedicicorto International Film Festival) was also delivered to The future by Santiago Ráfales because “photography is an integral part of the delicate evocation of a crucial phase of life, adhering to the purity of the childish gaze“.
The Short Film Jury, composed this year of Ilaria Feole, Alessandro Ronchi and Lorena Pavlicˇ, also gave a special mention to I promise you paradise by Morad Mostafa “for the very careful and effective photography in supporting the dramaturgy and bringing out the variety of chiaroscuro tones”.
All prizes are a mosaic work created by Friul Mosaic.
This year too, Le Giornate della Luce wanted to pay homage to the memory of the young Michela Baldo, victim of feminicide in June 2016. It was Monica Guerritore who dedicated the festival, reading a passage taken from her book “Quel che so di her” which tells of Giulia Trigona, aunt of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, killed in 1911 by her lover, to whom she had granted one last appointment.
For the last day of the festival, Sunday 9 June, at 11.00 at Tenuta Fernanda Cappello in Sequals Masolino d’Amico will present the doc Illuminate – Monica Vitti, the woman who lived twice, by director Marco Spagnoli. Ironic, seductive, spectacular, unique: Monica Vitti was one of the most iconic actresses of Italian cinema.
At 6.00 pm the documentary The Zone – Road to Chernobyl by Alessandro Tesei and Pierpaolo Mittica, both present at the screening, the directors will converse with Marco Pelosi. In collaboration with CRAF – Center for Research and Cataloging of Photography.
The festival closes at 9.00 pm at Cinema Miotto in homage to Vittorio Storaro, his latest work A Stroke of Luck by Woody Allen.
The Days of Light are organized by the Cultural Association Il Circolo di Spilimbergo and in 2023 they had the support of MiC, the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the city of Spilimbergo, the Friuli Foundation, Banca 360 FVG.
