ANDREA GATOPOULOS

He is a film producer, director and distributor. He was born in Pescara (Abruzzo, Italy) in 1994 and currently lives in Rome, where he graduated cum laude in 2016 in Modern Literature with the thesis “Virtual reality and image culture in the civilization of entertainment”. He founded the production company called Il Varco and produced 16 short films, 3 feature films and the edition of 5 books. He’s the artistic director of Il Varco – International Short Film Festival, Italy. He also founded the monthly screening Short Days in Rome and the Abruzzi’s film screening “New Abruzzi Cinema” in Pescara and the film distribution Gargantua Film. His film productions were featured in more than 120 festivals all around the world including Venice SIC@SIC, Camerimage, Rotterdam IFFR, In the Palace, Drama, Cyprus, Rome Film Festival. As a director, he shot “Onyricon” in 2015, “Spettri” in 2017, “Materia Celeste” in 2019 and “Polepole” in 2021. In 2020 he worked alongside Werner Herzog for his film Accelerator in Leticia, Colombia, in which he developed the filmed correspondence “Letters to Herzog”. He was among the finalists of Premio Zavattini 2021/2022. His last short film “Happy New Year, Jim” premiered at Cannes Film Festival during the 54. Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.

LILIAN SASSANELLI

Lilian Sassanelli was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1993. Raised in Rome, she entered the world of cinema at the age of 3 as an actress in the films “Fuori di me” by Gianni Zanasi and “Matrimoni” by Cristina Comencini. In 2006 he starred in the short film “The park of monsters” together with Rocco Papaleo. In 2013 he moved to Berlin. In Germany she did a 6-month internship in the production of the Wurste film ost as an assistant director and actress. In 2018 he made his directorial debut with the short film “IM BAREN”, which had its world premiere in the Alice in the city section at the Rome Film Festival and a finalist for the David awards.

ELIO DI PACE

Graduated with honors in DAMS (thesis on “No country for old men” by Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007) and in show sciences and multimedia production at the University of Salerno. He attended the course of photography in 2008 at Format and in 2014 he was a pupil of G. Rights and F. Valla at the “L’Aura” film school in Ostana (CN). He is enrolled in the publicist register at the national order of journalists – Campania since 2010. Author of short films, documentaries and music videos, he studies direction at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. His short film “The Visits” was selected for the international criticism week at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. In March his first feature film “La Chimera” will be released, a documentary about the abatement of Scampia sails, produced by Anemone Film and Rai Cinema.

ROSSELLA INGLESE

Rossella is an Italian screenwriter and director with a degree in digital filmmaking. In 2012 he founded the production company Fedra Film and directs several commercials and documentaries on prison. In 2013, under the supervision of Mirko Locatelli, he made the first short film “Sara”, followed by “Vanilla”, inserted in the Sic @ Sic section at the 31st international week of criticism in Venice. In 2018 he made the short film “Denise”, winner of the best short at the Roma Creative Contest and Aphrodite Shorts, winner of the Emidio Greco prize at the European Film Festival in Lecce, of the Young for young prize by Visioni Italiane of the Cineteca di Bologna and winner of the best direction at the Varco Film Festival.

SAMUELE SESTIERI

Samuele is graduated in directing and screenwriting at ACT MULTIMEDIA. He writes, directs and edits several short films, including “Danza al tramonto”, presented at the Cineambiente 2012 festival in Turin and “Matrioska”, selected at the Pesaro Film Festival 2018. In 2015 he made the feature film “I racconti dell’orso” with Olmo Amato, shown in many international festivals including Turin and Rotterdam. He also deals with film criticism for various online realities, founds the blog “Schermo bianco” and is chief editor of the cinema magazine “Point blank”.

LORENZO BERGHELLA

He studied at the IFA school of cinema in Pescara with which in 2014 he made his first animated short film “Too bad”. In 2014 “Too bad” becomes a 12-episode miniseries broadcast on Capital TV and repubblica.it, within the “Web night” program by Ernesto Assante and Gino Castaldo. In 2015 he wrote and directed “Bangland”, an animated film presented at the “Giornate degli autori” of the 72nd Venice Film Festival, where he was awarded the SIAE prize for the best emerging talent. In 2016/2017, together with the illustrator Roger Angeles, he made the prologue to the animated series “Adrian”, conceived, written and directed by Adriano Celentano, which aired on Canale 5.

KOSTANTINOS STRAGALINOS

He is awarded a master of arts in film and media production (England, Sheffield) with a scholarship from the State Scholarship Foundation (2011). He has directed several short films, documentaries on national television, videoclips and commercials. He has worked as an editor and director on private television. He has completed the developement of his feature film “Minefield” with the support of the Greek film center. He is a member of the board of directors of the “Vangelis Kotronis” Foundation, which organizes the fantastic film festival in Athens, advisory board and jury member at the Cinergo International Film Festival and coordinator of filming and screenings at the cinematographic sector of the University oh Athens. Moreover, he is a student of Athens School of Fine Arts, a graduate of Athens law school and member of the Greek directors guild.

PAOLO STRIPPOLI

Maria Iovine was born in Caserta in 1984. She graduated from the University of Salerno with her first practical thesis on editing entitled “Obraz. Sperimentazione Audiovisiva Sul Montaggio. Per Una Rifigurazione Ejzenštejniana De Le Lacrime Amare Di Petra Von Kant Di R. W. Fassbinder” that is worthy of praise and a special mention from the Academic Commission. From the age of 23 she was assistant and collaborator of Marco Spoletini (editor of Matteo Garrone’s Gomorra), Clelio Benevento (Mia Madre by Nanni Moretti), Esmeralda Calabria (Romanzo Criminale by Michele Placido), Valentina Girodo (Il commissario Rex for Channel 5). Currently editor of cinema, TV, documentaries for the most famous Italian production houses: the documentary “Massimo, il mio cinema secondo me” by Raffaele Verzillo from Caserta on the last unpublished interview with Massimo Troisi; the film Senza Fiato with Fortunato Cerlino coming out for the next film season; Lettera al Duce by Massimo Martella and 2000km di Bellezza by Italo Moscati for Istituto Luce Cinecittà, the TV series Casa Siffredi for Mediaset and 2 mini documentaries on Bebe Vio and Gabriele Mainetti for the Untaggable series produced by Magnolia and Sky Cinema. Always engaged in issues related to the female universe, she recently won the Lazio Region’s award ‘Innovation: Female Noun’ with a video montage on the relationship between women and technology whose title is Favole being updated. She also made a video on violence against women and conscientious objection.

ADRIANO GIOTTI

Born in Florence in 1984, he studied at the Holden school. In 2011 he was selected at the NCN LAB of La Casa Del Cinema and received a special mention for the screenplay for “A vuoto”. In 2012 he won the 48 hours Rome film festival with “Abbiamo avuto tutta la notte” and represents Italy in Los Angeles. In 2014 with “Piume” he won the Amnesty International Award at the Giffoni Film Festival and was also included in the Young Italian Authors review at the Venice Film Festival. In 2015 with “A Vuoto” he entered the top five at the Globo d’oro and returned to Young Italian Authors. In 2017 with “Esseri di stelle”, produced by Rai Cinema, it is in competition at the Giffoni Film Festival and again to Young Italian Authors. With “Mostri” he is in the fifties at the David di Donatello and receives the qualification of arthouse films from the MIBAC. His first feature film “Sex Cowboys” is the best Italian film at the Rome Independent Film Festival and is also distributed in Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, South Korea and Taiwan.

DANIELE PARISI