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Manuele Fior

Born in Cesena in 1975, Manuele Fior pursued his university education in Venice, studying architecture. In the following years, he worked in Berlin, Paris, and Oslo, as well as on archaeological drawings in Egypt, gradually developing an aesthetic sensibility that he would later transpose into comic art. Alongside the Disney animated films and action movies of his childhood, comic book reading nurtured his creative vocation from an early age. During his university years, he returned to comics, this time exploring works aimed at a more mature audience. Five Thousand Kilometers Per Second (Cinquemila chilometri al secondo, Coconino Press, 2011) brought Fior international recognition and extraordinary acclaim. This graphic novel introduces recurring themes in his storytelling that would contribute to the success of his later works. Fior delicately explores the fragility of human connections and the intimacy of relationships, alongside the desire for escape or return—an experience of travel that he personally embraces. These elements are found in Five Thousand Kilometers Per Second, where the protagonist Piero chooses to rebuild his life among the ruins of Cairo, and reappear later in the sunlit desert settings of Hypericon (Coconino Press, 2022).
Manuele Fior’s art benefits greatly from both his academic training and a passion he has cultivated over the years. While his urban landscapes are rendered with realism and a keen awareness of space and proportion, they are simultaneously designed as stages for phantasmagorias and unpredictable narratives. In 2013, he published L’intervista (The Interview, Coconino Press; Oblomov, 2019). Illustrated in charcoal to emulate the black-and-white aesthetics of Michelangelo Antonioni’s films, it is a science fiction novella that plays with a stark, almost void-like visual contrast, enveloping the skies over Udine in gray tones and near-dystopian atmospheres. L’intervista introduces Dora, a young woman with telepathic abilities, who accompanies the protagonist, Raniero, through a futuristic Italy invaded by alien beings. A few years later, the monochromatic Udine of L’intervista transforms into a dreamlike vision of Venice, suspended somewhere between the pastel worlds of Moebius and Miyazaki. Here, Dora reappears, forming an unlikely duo with the enigmatic Pierrot in a story driven by escape and the search for identity. The setting is a lantern-lit Venice brought to life by tales of fugitives and intriguing masks.
Similarly, Le variazioni d’Orsay (The Orsay Variations, Coconino Press, 2015) presents a choral fresco blending reality and surrealism. This time, Fior worked on commission for the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, an opportunity that allowed him to experiment with stylistic techniques beyond his usual repertoire. The result is an immersive experience, with Fior acting as a host, inviting readers into the Impressionist Salon that shook the French art world at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. For him, it was an “exercise in improvisation,” leading to an exploration of the backstage of the Musée d’Orsay—where artistic fervor gradually gives way to disenchantment. Figures like Ingres, Degas, Manet, and Rousseau appear not as central subjects but as fragments within a much broader frame—the story of a Paris intoxicated by sophistication and transformation. 
Fior masters the medium of comic art and bends it beyond the borders of its former applications. Rosso Oltremare (2006) provided a voice for his vocation in a rather ragged yet effective debut. The subsequent years are testimony to a gradual development of his own style, grasping from painting techniques of the Viennese Secession (Mademoiselle Else, Coconino press 2009) up to the trademark that distinguishes his most recent works. 
Nocturnal glimpses and windows of Moorish palaces, Fior’s favorite muse for the two previous editions of Ca’ Foscari short is Venice’s soul, which he captures in its intimacy and sensuality thanks to an upward glance. This year too, his art lends itself to the poster of the Festival.  

Special Programs

‘The World of Casanova and Fellini’: Short Meets Gianfranco Angelucci
“Ginger ~ Fred”: Film&Parità Project
Closing ceremony
East Asia Now 2025
Manuele Fior
Pre-opening special event: Anymation
Short Meets Pablo Berger
Short Meets Roberto Catani
Short Meets Venezia Comics, U22 Youth FF, Smartfilms
Short presents Short Med_Cine
Short remembers Kumar Shahani
Special program of the Jury
The birth of Italian animation
The Suspended Glance 2025
The World of Marco Bellocchio
Video contest "Francesco Pasinetti" 2025
WeShort Originals
Young Filmmakers at Ca’ Foscari 2025