First four special prizes awarded
Published 27/04/2024
The Dolomites World Heritage Award, the Banca per il Trentino – Alto Adige Solidarity Award, the Green Film Award and the Anthropocene MUSE Award will be handed over at screenings in the cinema today.
The World Heritage Dolomites Award, established by the Fondazione Dolomiti UNESCO and SAT Società Alpinisti Tridentini for the best film documenting the awareness within communities of the exceptional universal values recognised by UNESCO and the ability to carry out active conservation of the area, has been awarded to Contadini di Confine / Grenzbauern by Michele Trentini (Italy/2024/72′). This is the motivation of the independent jury, made up of Maria Carla Failo, Mauro Pascolini and Massimiliano Corradini: “The film once again proposes the theme of “resistance” in the mountains, in this case based on a type of farming using traditional systems and with mechanisation still “on a human scale” that makes it possible to produce a prestigious cheese such as “Trentingrana”, thanks to the wealth of mountain pastures. The choice of interviews, almost always involving couples, is commendable. Lastly, the concept of a boundary that exists politically but not in people’s minds should be underlined.” The prize will be given to the director in Auditorium 2 of Cinema Modena at 3 pm. Special mention has been given to Bergfahrt by Dominique Margot (Switzerland/2023/97′)
The Solidarity Award – Banca per il Trentino – Alto Adige, established by the Banca per il Trentino – Alto Adige for the work that best interprets situations of poverty, injustice, social marginalisation and isolation that can be resolved through solidarity and mutual help, goes instead to The Ice Builders by Francesco Clerici and Tommaso Barbaro (Italy/2024 /15’): “The commitment of the inhabitants in the Zanskar area, dependent on glaciers to provide them with water for crops and to rear animals, is extraordinary. Faced with climate change and negative external factors leading to recurring drought, they combine their efforts to construct small artificial glaciers, with ingenuity and patient solidarity, to feed the water table, demonstrating in concrete terms how everything is interdependent and linked”, is the motivation given by jury members Ermanno Villotti, Michele Goller and Franco Dapor. The same film has also been given the Green Film Award, established by the Agenzia Provinciale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente and Trentino Film Commission for the film that most effectively expresses environmental protection and sustainability values and practices, with particular attention for the mountain environment and climate change. “Recounted in an effective and engaging way, it raises awareness of a specific climate adaptation strategy from below, based on the local knowledge of a mountain community that has fully understood the need to change its approach after having experienced the consequences of the climate crisis at first hand”, is the motivation of the jury, made up of Marco Niro, Lavinia Laiti and Linnea Marzagora. The prize will be announced in Auditorium 1 of Cinema Modena at 6.45 pm. The jury of the Green Film Award also gave a special mention to Dominique Margot’s Bergfahrt.
The Anthropocene MUSE Award, given to the work that best recounts the relationship between nature and mankind in the Anthropocene epoch, will also be awarded on the same occasion. The independent jury, made up of Stefano Zecchi, Massimo Bernardi, Davide Dalpiaz, Luca Scoz, Alice Labor and Fabio Pupin – has awarded the prize to Nuno Escudeiro’s Death of a mountain (Portugal, France/2023/37′), commenting: “by mixing period footage and current affairs a narration is created falling between reality and metaphor, showing the protagonist’s disenchantment with the mountains. From an idyllic place of childhood memories, the mountains become a frontier land and place of conflict, where problems apparently distant from global affairs become dramatically close and tangible, inevitably involving the inhabitants of these places.”
