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 Last act for the Ischia Film Festival 2018, the sixteenth record-breaking edition for the number of films, guests, public and national and international echo. For eight days the Aragonese Castle has been at the center of Italian cinema, seeing as it passes on its five stages and screens Gabriele Salvatores, Carlo Verdone, Daniele Vicari, Gabriele Muccino, Fabio De Luigi, Nicola Nocella, Andrea Magnani, the Manetti brothers, Fontana & Stasi, Pippo Mezzapesa and many, many other guests, from Italy and the world. A festival without borders that is confirmed by the decisions of the juries of the Ischia Film Festival that have decreed the winners of the 16th edition of international competitions.

The best feature film in the feature section is Il cratere by Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino, yet another award for one of the best Italian films of the year, which also won the SonyATV award for the best soundtrack. The Dominican Republic takes the award for best directing and for the best scenography for Sambà, a film much loved by the public too. The best photo is awarded by Daniel Leo for the Polish film Man Proposes, God Disposes. Best Short Award for Domesticado, with a special mention for the short British comedy Call Me Alvy, while the SonyATV award goes to Eyes. Location Award denied to Giulio Tonicelli and his Happy Today, while the award for best documentary was awarded to Burkinabè Rising, with a special mention for Silvi Bellotti open to the public.

This year the competition section was also Scenari Campani and the first BPER Award if it won Je So 'Pazzo by Andrea Canova, with a special mention for Stefano Russo's Fortress.

Finally, the Audience Award, voted by the public of the Ischia Film Festival. Before the night, the film by Daniele Vicari starring Fabrizio Gifuni, aired on RAI 1, wins with an extraordinary average of 4.88 out of five.

Here is the complete list of prizes, section by section, with the juries and motivations.

The Jury of the Feature Films, composed by the Swiss journalist and filmmaker Lorenzo Buccella, by the director and screenwriter Laura Bispuri and by the film critic and general director of the Kiev Molodist Film Festival Andriy Khalpakhci, has resolved:

 

Ischia Film Award for best feature film:

THE CRATER by Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino

Reason:

For a cinematographic language that challenges the link between reality and image, pursuing the relationship between a father and a daughter in his deepest psychological spectra with a grace that does not withdraw in the face of the abyss.

 

 

Castello Aragonese Award for Best Director:

Laura Amelia Guzmàn and Israel Cardénas for the film SAMBÁ

Reason:

For a wonderful fusion of places, history and characters. A vital, harsh and calibrated direction that manages to cross the boxing world and the social reality of the Dominican Republic avoiding any cliche.

Epomeo Prize for the best Cinematographic Photography:

Daniel Leo for the film MAN PROPOSES, GOD DISPOSES

Reason:

Because behind every image there is the force of a journey that accompanies and completes the characters, with a visual impact that is always present but never intrusive.

Aenaria Prize for the best Scenography:

Monica de Moya for the film SAMBÁ

Reason:

For a choice of settings that are not exotic but measured, real and careful.

SonyATV Award for the best soundtrack in an Italian film

Feature:

THE CRATER for having married with music, emotions and territorial identity

The Jury of the Short Films and Location Negata section, composed by the director and screenwriter Toni D'Angelo, by the actor Vinicio Marchioni and the set designer Tonino Zera, has thus deliberated:

Ischia Film Award for the best short film:

DOMESTICADO by Juan Francisco Viruega

Reason:

The dramaturgical completeness, the photographic style able to tell without dialogue a simple but eternal story with echoes of Greek tragedy but with the most classic style of the Grande Cinema.

Special mention to:

CALL ME ALVY by Alexei Slater

Reason:

For the ability to convey to the viewer the themes and poetics of a master of cinema history as Woody Allen, returning both the cynical scratch and the light touch.

SonyATV Award for the best soundtrack in a short film:

EYES for the clever use of songs edited and reinterpreted in an original way

 

 

Ischia Film Award Location Negated:

HAPPY TODAY by Giulio Tonincelli

Reason:

A photographically impeccable and wonderful story able to bring the viewer into the female dimension of the world, celebrating Africa through the birth of life, subverting in a poetic way the common stereotypes on the south of the world.

The Jury of the Documentary section, composed by journalist and TV presenter Antonello P