Venice, March 19th 2025. The first day of the Ca’ Foscari Film Festival begun at the Auditorium Santa Margherita – Emanuele Severino with a special program dedicated to four of the festival partners, starting with Venezia Comics, the comics festival, which awards the prize of best short animation in the competition, U22 Youth Film Festival of Barcelona, with the screening of 2024 winning short Corre o Vento by Paula Fuentes and Guillermo Carrera. Then, Smartfilms, the biggest film festival on smartphone format – bringing together directors from all over South America – brought on the festival’s screen Giants of the Pacific by Mateo Moya. Celebrating Father’s Day, the audience later attended the screening of 154, a short film featuring Giovanni Storti, a production by WeShort, the Italian streaming platform for short films, a long-time partner of the festival.
The special program dedicated to videoart, Lo Sguardo Sospeso, was then presented. The event, curated by Elisabetta Di Sopra, as it is every year, was held in collaboration with Laura Leuzzi, professor of contemporary art history. This year, the focus on approaches, themes, and experimental styles shifted to the United Kingdom, with an eye on current events, as shown by works such as Nothing Besides Remains or Overcame. Director Lucia Franci and producer Francesco Tomasi also took part in the event and presented Absentia, a contemporary dance play on screen. Following this, as an established tradition, the program on early cinema curated by Carlo Montanaro, this year’s edition was dedicated to the birth of Italian animation. Five excerpts were screened, starting with La storia di Lulù (1909-1910) by Arrigo Frusta, considered the first example of animation in Italy. Other works demonstrated the influence of Disney or neorealism on post-war animation, and the program ended with La piccola fiammiferaia (1953) by Romano Scarpa. The official opening ceremony was then held with the participation of the Rector of Ca’ Foscari University, Tiziana Lippiello, of Municipality Councillor for Universities Paola Mar, of General Director of Fondazione di Venezia Giovanni Dell’Olivo, of Regional Councillor for Equal Opportunities of the Veneto Region Francesca Torelli, and of Festival Director Roberta Novielli. The opening ceremony was also an opportunity to present the screening of Ginger ~ Fred, a short film produced by the students of Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival for the second edition of the Film&Parità Project.
The day continued with the screening of the first six short films in the International Competition. The first film presented was Dragfox by Swiss animation director Lisa Ott. This stop-motion short film explores the theme of discovering one’s gender identity, narrating the adventure of eleven-year-old Sam, who embarks on a journey of self-discovery alongside a fearless urban fox. Next was Far Between Us, directed by Slovak filmmaker Vojtěch Javůrek. The film centers on young Vašek, who finds himself alone with his emotions when an unexpected request from his biological mother catches his adoptive parents off guard. The third short film showcased was Punter, directed by South African-born and New York-based filmmaker Jason Adam Maselle. Set in Johannesburg, the film delves into the complex relationship between a father and son in a world shaped by gambling, posing a profound question to the audience: to what extent are we willing to go for the people we love? The screenings continued with Please Listen to Me, an animated short by independent Chinese animator Keyu Zhou. This work gives voice to young Chinese adults, reflecting their urgent need to express their feelings and concerns about contemporary society. Next, the audience was presented with Beautiful Smile, a short film by German director Sophia Albrecht. The film addresses the Holocaust from the perspective of an Estonian child who encounters a young German girl on a deportation train. Concluding the selection of short films in the International Competition was Uninvited, written and directed by Russian filmmaker Ekaterina Ganzhela. The film follows a woman facing a moral dilemma: whether to report her son to the authorities or, out of maternal love, protect him. The first day of the festival’s fifteenth edition culminated with the highly anticipated masterclass by renowned Spanish director Pablo Berger.
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