Editor

On Tuesday, 5 December, award ceremony and screening of
Dialogo tra un venditore di almanacchi e un passeggiere (1954) by Ermanno Olmi and the docufilm Il primo sguardo (2009) by Marco Manzoni.

Photo ©Gianni Berengo Gardin/Contrasto

Almost 100 works are taking part in this year's 5th edition of the Ermanno Olmi Award, intended to promote short films by young directors. Fictions, documentaries, experimental films and animation, from Germany, Spain, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Turkey, the Republic of Korea and Poland, among others, and a substantial Italian representative.

Three cash prizes (€1,200, €600, €400), made available by Bergamo Film Meeting Onlus, and a special mention with a cash prize worth €300 offered by FIC - Federazione Italiana Cineforum. Competing for the Prize, promoted by the City of Bergamo, with the support of Bergamo Film Meeting Onlus in collaboration with FIC - Federazione Italiana Cineforum are: Štarter by Péter Dóczé (Hungary, 2022), Things unheard of by Ramazan Kılıç (Turkey, 2023), Busan, 1999 by Thomas Percy Kim USA, Republic of Korea, 2022) and The Passing of Time by Nathan Le Graciet (France, 2022).

The Prize will be awarded on Tuesday 5th December at 8.30 p.m. at the Auditorium in Piazza della Libertà by the jury consisting of Luigi Musini (film producer), Lorenzo Rossi (researcher and editor of Cineforum magazine), Omar Pesenti (director and screenwriter), Giada Mazzoleni (film producer and teacher) and Giorgia Goi (producer and distributor), along with a special mention awarded to the most significant work concerning “The Human Being and Time”, a reflection on the relationship of the human being with time, a theme that Ermanno Olmi explored in various aspects throughout his film production. Olmi has dealt with the relationship of the individual with family history and collective history, the bond with the heritage of the places of birth and belonging; he has recounted the harmony with the rhythms of nature and the bewilderment that humanity and individuals experience when this is broken.

During the evening - with free admission - the four finalist works of the competition will be screened and at 10.00 p.m. a tribute will be paid to Ermanno Olmi with his short film Dialogo tra un venditore di almanacchi e un passeggiere (Italy, 1954), conserved and restored by CSC - Archivio Nazionale Cinema Impresa (Ivrea), courtesy of Edison, and the Bergamo premiere of the docufilm Il primo sguardo (2009) by Marco Manzoni.

THE FINALISTS
Štarter by Péter Dóczé (Hungary, 2022, 12’)
A young boy urgently needs money to impress the girl he likes. In exchange for 20 coronas, he helps two men from the neighbourhood with a small favour. He has no idea how much danger he is putting himself in.
Things unheard of by Ramazan Kılıç (Turkey, 2023, 15’)
A little girl tries to put a smile back on her grandmother’s face after the disappearance of her television, her only window on the world.
Busan, 1999 by Thomas Percy Kim (USA, Republic of Korea, 2022, 11’ 17’’)
A pregnant Korean-American woman returns to Korea and her mother. They bathe and scrub each other, hoping to heal past wounds.
The Passing of Time by Nathan Le Graciet (France, 2022, 11’)
Alan is 10 and he is celebrating Christmas with his family. Then, it is the holidays once again. However, this time, Alan will be 20 tomorrow...

HOMAGE TO ERMANNO OLMI
Dialogo tra un venditore di almanacchi e un passeggere by Ermanno Olmi (Italy 1954, 10')
A brief exchange of words between an almanac seller and a passer-by, his potential customer, about the year to come. While wishing for a better year, or at least one as good as any of the past twenty, they both end up agreeing that they would not choose any of the past ones and that chance has treated everyone badly so far.

Il primo sguardo by Marco Manzoni (Italy 2009, 54’)
In this impassioned interview, Olmi talks about cinema and life and the human values that have animated his works. The conversation starts from the crisis of contemporary man, which for Olmi is not only economic and ecological, but a global crisis that also affects the field of values. His story then unfolds between significant life experiences and profound existential reflections, starting with some of his most appreciated films - L'albero degli zoccoli, Cantando dietro i paraventi, La leggenda del santo bevitore, Il mestiere delle armi, Centochiodi, Torneranno i prati. Ermanno Olmi, a great man of cinema, a master of humanism who speaks to contemporary man.