Editor

“Corto in Bra”, Brief Emotions on The Big Screen
From 21st to 25th April the international festival
dedicated to short films.

Three competition categories with a prize for the best original Italian screenplay, the best short films coming from the whole of Europe and a space reserved for food lovers organised with the help of Slow Food.

Among others, Antonio Albanese and the young directors, Shimmy Marcus and Alessandro Piva will sit on the Jury.

Three categories, five prizes and juries made up of students and professionals from the world of cinema and communication. In addition: a space dedicated to the combination of food and cinema organised with the help of Slow Food that will also be looking back into the past; co-operation with important national and international institutions; theme dinners recreating the great meals portrayed on the screen; a retrospective look at historical trailers and silent films with live music. All this and a lot more can be found in the 2004 edition of “Corto in Bra”, that opens from 21st to 25th April in Bra, in the heart of Piedmont. Over the festival’s five days, over ninety short films will be presented in the competition’s various categories: 24 European shorts and 19 from Italy (plus 2 not competing) in the “Short Cinema in Europe” category; 33 films in the “Slow Food on Film Doc” section, coming from 8 different countries. In addition to these, there are six finalists in the section reserved for original Italian screenplays, competing for the “Città di Bra” award, all chosen by the festival’s three artistic directors, Luca Busso, Luisa Grosso and Stefano Sardo. Special events will be dedicated to the stars of the celluloid world present in the festival juries: actor Antonio Albanese, directors Alessandro Piva and Shimmy Marcus, whose film Headrush (one of last season’s most interesting European films) will debut in Bra as an Italian première. In addition to the official events, space will be reserved for films from the past with screenings dedicated to a historical study of films that have linked their fortunes to the theme of food and an anthology of vintage trailers accompanied by live performances by the composers of the soundtracks. The event is organised by the city of Bra and the Bracinetica association with the partnership of Slow Food and prestigious national cinema institutions. Also contributing are other bodies such as the Bologna Municipal Film Library, Milan Film Library, Turin National Cinema Museum, the Piedmont Turin Film Commission and the Irish Cork International Film Festival.


The Categories


SHORT CINEMA IN EUROPE

This category recognizes the best short film produced in geographical Europe.
Less than half the fourty-three films shortlisted for the competition are Italian, with the other entries coming from other countries. The winner will be awarded the “La Zizzola” prize (the name coming from the building symbol of Bra) and € 3,500 by a jury made of students from Austria, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands and Rumania, chaired by the young Irish director Shimmy Marcus. An additional €1,500-cash prize will also be awarded to the best Italian production. In this case too, the prize will be awarded by a jury of high school students from the province of Cuneo, chaired by the outstanding director Alessandro Piva, who obtained a David di Donatello with La capa gira.

CITTÀ DI BRA AWARD

The City of Bra prize is a competition reserved for the best original screenplay for Italian language short films. The considerable amount of the prize – €7,000 – making the Bra festival one of the most important at continental level, aims to enable the author to turn his/her script into a film within a year. From this year on, the prize could further increase by €2,500 thanks to the contribution of the Piedmont Turin Film Commission, if the film is shot in the region and the Piedmontese locations are easily recognisable.
Six screenwriter finalists will be present at Bra during the festival to explain the content of their work, which will be judged by a jury composed of the writer Alessandro Fabbri, the screenwriter Massimo Gaudioso, the director Alessandro Piva, the producer Nicola Giuliano, Alessandro Mallardo, administrator of “L'ora corta” on Rai Sat Cinemaworld and the historian Livio Berardo.

SLOW FOOD ON FILM
The space reserved for the films dedicated to the love for food has its second showing and doubles its offer, with two distinct prizes reserved for the best short fiction film (Slow Food on Film) and the best documentary (Slow Food On Film Doc). Furthermore, space will also be reserved for historical research with a category not in competition called “Slow Film on Film Graffiti”. The films coming from all around the world, recount the rite of food, not only as an expression of culture or awareness, but also as a symbolic element of a social condition. To the winners of the “Golden Snail” (the symbol of the Slow Food movement), a prize of €5,000 will be awarded, while the best documentary in the new “Slow Food on Film Doc” section, will be awarded a prize of €2,500.
Chairman of the jury will be the actor and director Antonio Albanese; the patron of Slow Food, Carlo Petrini; the director of the Cork International Film Festival, Mick Hannigan; the documentary film maker, Gabriella Pignatelli and two journalists who have brought the great themes of gastronomy to the small screen, Steven Kirsh of “Real Food Network” and Marco Bolasco of “Rai Sat Gambero Rosso”.