The Jury 2024 - RIFF - Rome Independent Film Festival

JURY

This year, RIFF pays tribute to its spectators introducing the Audience Award. The audience, the recipient par excellence and essential pillar of the cinema, will judge the films in competition. Spectators will be called directly to express their opinion on a special sheet of paper delivered at the beginning of the film. The vote will affect the sections of Internationals Short Film. The initiative aims to make the experience in the room more interactive and engaging, allowing the authors to receive direct and immediate feedback.

Cristian Casella completed his studies with full marks in Economy and Business at Rome University “La Sapienza”. He has specialized getting a Master’s Degree in Corporate Finance, Marketing and Communication. Consultant for the development and media project management of financial intermediaries and consultant for the development of financial initiatives related to the audiovisual industry through the creation of investment instruments with venture capital. Communications consultant for government institutions, public and private entities both nationally and at the community level. Lecturer in several Master’s degrees in marketing and business communication sponsored by Italian and International Institutions and Organizations. Contributor and draftsman of bills for Tax Credit and legislation in the entertainment industry. Responsible for numerous projects in the area of Institutional Communication for Institutional Relations and Public Affairs activities. Creator and promoter of institutional campaigns for government activities. Direct member of the staff that oversaw the image and Communication of leading Government Authorities. Communications consultant to the Prime Minister’s Office of the Italian Government at a variety of national and international events, bilateral government summits and G8 summits, with several formal PCM awards and commendations for carrying out professional assignments and services provided to institutions for emergency and security activities. Creator, consultant and manager of political communication as part of numerous election campaigns. Founder and director of several companies working in production, distribution of audiovisual content and high-tech services in communication. As a media expert, he has carried out numerous initiatives in the field of publishing, production and distribution of TV formats in Italy as well as outside of the country in collaboration with leading TV broadcasters and international companies in the field. ANICA member since 2013. Co-Founding Member of the Italy-U.S. Foundation and several other associations as well as non-profit organizations in the cultural and social fields.

Sophie Chiarello is an Italian-French filmmaker; she grew up in France and graduated of the FEMIS film school in Paris. In 2022- 2023, she took part in the School of the Book creative writing course held by Carola Susani and Francesco Pacifico. She began her career in Italy as assistant director of G. Salvatores, M. Venier, E. Winspeare, K. Rossi Stuart, G. Piccioni, W. Labate, M.Risi, M.Cesena and collaborated with many Italian and non-Italian advertising directors. She wrote and directed three short films that have been awarded at various festivals. “Un filo intorno al mondo” (“A Thread Around the World”) featuring Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo, was a finalist for the Nastri d’Argento in 2006 and competed in Italian as well as foreign festivals. She collaborated on the direction of Aldo Giovanni e Giacomo’s film “La banda dei babbi natale” and directed her debut “Ci vuole un gran fisico” (Medusa-Agidi), released in theaters in 2013. At the same time she was working on her documentary projects. In 2012 she wrote and directed “RITALS, domani me ne vado” in collaboration with her sister Anna-Lisa Chiarello, a film that competed in numerous Italian as well as foreign festivals and won the special jury prize at the 2012 Annecy Italian Film Festival. ”The Circle”, which she wrote and directed, is her second documentary. She wins the special mention of the jury at the Alice nella città festival of the Rome Film Festival 2022, the Corso Salani Award of the AlpeAdriaFilmFestival 2023, the Young Jury Award of the Bolzano Film Festival 2023. It’s a fifth finalist for the Valentina Pedicini award of the Nastri d’Argento 2023 and wins the David di Donatello Cecilia Mangini 2023 Award for the best documentary, the PD Word award at the Salina Doc Fest 2024, and continues its tour in festivals. She is currently filming a new documentary and writing a fiction feature film.

Coming from a small Sicilian background, I have always felt a strong pull toward big stories. My university studies in Rome allowed me to fully immerse myself in the world of cinema, discovering a passion that has never left me since. I am convinced that cinema is a powerful tool through which we can explore the complexity of the human soul and stimulate critical thinking. My goal is to help create films that are both exciting and intellectually stimulating, capable of engaging audiences as well as providing unique experiences. And I wish myself and all of you who share my passion to continue to do so, both for the great artists that I had the honor to collaborate with (Amelio and Bellocchio among others) and for the young talents.

Pietro De Silva is among the most prolific Italian directors, playwrights and actors. His extraordinary talent has led him to work with the best professionals in our country. His career, always spanning the small and big screen, began in 1983 by starring in the film Sing sing. He played other more or less important roles, until the breakthrough: Roberto Benigni casts him in the masterpiece La vita è bella, where De Silva plays an inmate in the concentration camp. After a few years Sergio Castellitto wanted him in the drama “Non ti muovere”, based on Margaret Mazzantini’s novel bearing the same name. Meanwhile, he filmed successful TV dramas such as “Don Matteo”, “Boris”, “Il capo dei capi”, and “Il giovane Montalbano”. In 2011 he featured in the comedy “Nessuno mi può giudicare”, next to the star Paola Cortellesi, while the following year he was among the cast of the drama “Henry”, directed by Alessandro Piva, and “Una domenica notte” by Giuseppe Marco Albano. In 2015 he starred in Gianluca Maria Tavarelli’s “Una storia sbagliata” and Emanuela Piovano’s “L’età d’oro”. In 2016 he filmed Fabio Massa’s “AEffetto Domino”.

After graduating in Communication Studies, she continued her education in the United States, achieving a Master’s degree in Screenwriting at the New York Film Academy. After completing her studies, she came back to Rome and began her career at Cattleya, eventually continuing at Lotus. She has held the position of Managing Producer at Sky Studios Italy since 2021. Throughout her experience, she has worked on major TV productions, including “Nero a metà 2”,” A casa tutti bene – La serie” and “L’arte della gioia”.

He began as a VFX Artist for the BUF Compagnie and then became visual effects supervisor for “Batman and Robin” and “Fight Club”. In 2001 Francesco Grisi founded EDI Italian Digital Effects with Pasquale Croce. Over 23 years he and his company produced visual effects for more than 230 films, collaborating with several of Italy’s most celebrated directors-including Gabriele Mainetti, Gabriele Muccino, Matteo Rovere, and Gabriele Salvatores. He has worked with Hollywood majors such as Disney America, Marvel, DC Comics, Warner and 20th Century Studios and for international series produced by Sky, Netflix, Amazon Prime and HBO. He is a member of the Accademia del Cinema Italiano – Premi David di Donatello and of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2019.

Born in Milan in 1993, Carolina graduated in Economics and Management for Art Culture and Communication at Bocconi University; she moved to Rome to study Film Production at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, where she graduated in 2018. In the same year, she began working for the production company Indigo Film, where she currently supervises the production of films and documentaries; among the projects she oversaw were: ”The Circle” by Sophie Chiarello, “Ballo Ballo” by Nacho Alvarez, “La Treccia” (“The Braid”) by Laetitia Colombani, “Another End” by Piero Messina and “Iddu-L’ultimo padrino” (“Him – The Last Godfather”) by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza.

She is a professional journalist, half Abruzzese, half Apulian but Roman by adoption. After graduating in Humanities at D’Annunzio University in Chieti, she won a scholarship to Luiss’ Master’s in Journalism and Mass Communications, where she discussed a thesis on economic journalism. During her master’s degree, she worked as an intern at the editorial office of the daily newspaper “Il Centro” in Pescara and then at the weekly magazine L’Espresso, where she has been an editor since 1990. She has taught in state high schools in Rome, holding courses in journalism, communication, and cultural event organization at the Academy of Costume and Fashion in Rome, at the BS LUISS, and several state universities. She was a jury member of the Alghero Women’s Prize for Literature and Poetry and curator of contemporary art exhibitions and Louis Vuitton’s Rome Guide. She was the author and co-host of the radio program “Atlantis” on Radio2.

Miriam Mauti, born on the outskirts of Rome, has been a recognized voice in the Capital’s radio industry for more than 30 years, where she began as a reporter at the historic station Radio Città Futura. By the end of the 1980s, she first came into contact with Rai, where she worked on several RadioTre broadcasts, including the daily RadioTre film program, known as Hollywood Party. She has described cinema as a correspondent at major international film festivals, from Venice to Cannes, Toronto to Marrakesh, with interviews and reports. In 2016 she presented some titles of the Italian cinema for the Moviemov Festival to the audience of the Cinematheque in Manila, Philippines. From 2017 to 2019, she worked on TV, reporting the voices and personalities of the island’s culture -for Tgr Sardegna- and then returned to the radio, her great passion along with travel. Today she is the head of the Entertainment and Culture editorial staff of the Rai Radio Newspaper.

Born in Rome, he took his first steps on film sets during his childhood, following his father Aldo Passalacqua, Executive Producer, who worked alongside directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, Dino Risi, Alberto Lattuada and actors such as Anna Magnani, Ugo Tognazzi, Marcello Mastroianni, Monica Vitti and Ornella Muti. His education and the environment where he grew up influenced his passion for art and culture, especially cinematography and photography. He studied Economics and Business at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and in 1990 he embarked exclusively on his filmmaking career, starting as Production Assistant and today rising to the position of Executive Producer. He has been involved in the production of several Italian and international production, collaborating with many directors including: Marcello Fondato, Riccardo Milani, Ettore Scola, Roberto Benigni, Mel Gibson, Wes Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, Woody Allen and Terrence Malick.

Nicola Sganga started his career as an architect and continues as a researcher at the Department of Representation and Surveying. He has worked in the Film industry for 24 years, winning two David di Donatello for the VFX with Paolo Sorrentino and Matteo Garrone. He has worked on more than 50 film productions and 60 TV commercials. He joined the David di Donatello Academy in 2010. For three years he served on the Advisory Board for new technologies at the Venice Foundation for the M9 Museum Project in Polymnia. For the past 9 years, he has been linking new technologies to the Film Industry by developing tools for the VR and Virtual Production, leading the innovation projects for the PNR Cinecittà Studios and the Prato district.

JURY

Cristian Casella

Sophie Chiarello

Sonia Cilia

Pietro De Silva

Emma Esposito

Francesco Grisi

Carolina Iorio

Antonia Matarrese

Miriam Mauti

Andrea Passalacqua

Nicola Sganga

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