After careful considerations, the jurors of the 46th edition of the Giffoni Film Festival came up with the shorts winning the Gryphon Award 2017. Elements +3 jurors discovered the magic of cinema watching 20 works in competitions coming from different parts of the world. The winner is TWO TRAMS by Svetlana Andrianova (Russia, 2016): Klick and Tram, two city trams, accompany the spectators in their great adventures.
The winning short in ELEMENTS +6 section is LITTERBUGS by Peter Stanley-Ward (UK) where, thanks to the help of the flying machines she has built, a young inventor fights together with a little superhero against a group of bossy girls. They will discover an unexpected friendship. As for ELEMENTS +10, the award goes to JUST GO! by Pavel Gumennikovs (Latvia, 2017). The short is based on the real incredible story of 24-year-old Just who lost both legs when he was little. Thanks to a new love, he will go beyond his limits and expectations.
CONFINED by Nico Bonomolo (Italy) won in GENERATOR +18, animation category. The setting is Sicily during Fascism where, after mocking Mussolini in one of his shows, a Chinese shadows artist is confined to an island with a lighthouse. An unexpected event related to his art will save him from loneliness and detention. In the same section, MARE NOSTRUM by Rana Kazkaz, Anas Khalaf (France) wins in the fiction category. On the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, a Syrian father takes a risky decision that will endanger his daughter’s life.
Parental Control “Destinazione Italia”, the section dedicated to parents too, chose LETTERE A MIA FIGLIA by Giuseppe Alessio Nuzzo (Italy, 2016): it’s dark, a man is sitting at his desk and writing a letter to his daughter Michela. As the ink flows on the white paper and time runs out, the old man seems to be writing for months, year. With wet eyes, he writes he’s been abandoned by everyone, especially from her,
Two honourable mentions for the shorts: ROCKY by Daniele Pini (Italy, 2017) won Premio Rai Cinema Channel in competition in Elements +10, whereas CONFINED by Nico Bonomolo won the Amnesty International Award for Generator +18 for telling about a contemporary reality through a past story. The freedom of expression negated by the authorities represents an abuse to human rights and it’s only through this freedom that a society can be defined as civilized. The freedom of expression couldn’t exist without confrontation and respect for each other’s opinions.
