Palmarès 2025

GDA DIRECTOR’S AWARD
The Giornate degli Autori jury – headed by the Norwegian filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud and made up of the Italian producer Francesca Andreoli; the curator in MoMA’s Department of Film in New York, Josh Siegel; the Franco-Palestinian-Algerian actress and director Lina Soualem; and the Tunisian cinematographer Sofian El Fani – has decreed the winner of the GDA DIRECTOR’S AWARD, with its cash prize of €20,000 to be split between the director and the international distributor of the film:
Daroon-E Amir (Inside Amir) by Amir Azizi
The jury has released the following statement:
“The film we will honor tonight is a meditation on everyday life. It reminds us of how daily routines, movements, and conversations with friends provide both security and freedom. With a framing that little by little reveals a complex life marked by loss and grief against a backdrop of exile and social upheaval, the film asks fundamental questions about what it means to belong and the existential doubts that follow in the wake of such thoughts. It is a film that takes time to listen, and that shows how unexpected, spontaneous encounters build a rich life. The film’s precise dialogue and staging give a strong sense of presence, and as a viewer you feel a generosity in the way you are invited in among a group of friends and get to take part of both intimate, profound, and trivial conversations. Another thing that gives great pleasure when watching this film is the subtle use of different time periods, often in the same frame, and often during the same bike ride. It is an honor to give the Giornate degli Autori award to Daroon-E Amir (Inside Amir) by Amir Azizi.”

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
Memory by Vladlena Sandu
and
A Sad and Beautiful World by Cyril Aris

EUROPA CINEMAS LABEL
This year’s jury, composed of Manuel Asín (Cine Estudio del Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain), Simon Blaas (Cinema Middelburg, Middelburg, the Netherlands), Ivan Frenguelli (PostModernissimo, Perugia, Italy), and Signe-Annie Lindstedt (Zita Folkets Bio, Stockholm, Sweden) has bestowed the Europa Cinemas Label on:
Arkoudotrypa (Bearcave) by Stergios Dinopoulos and Krysianna B. Papadakis.
The jury has released the following statement:
“Arkoudotrypa (Bearcave) is a really fresh and energetic feature debut from Stergios Dinopoulos and Krysianna B. Papadakis, with a young and very talented crew behind them. The film follows the relationship between two young queer women high up in the Balkan Mountains. Both a clash and a fusion of the old and new, the film is constructed a little like a thriller, but there is also more than a touch of the supernatural. The music, editing and photography are really original, and the performances by the two girls are exceptional. We really hope that the award of the Label will encourage distributors and audiences around Europe.”

THE VALENTINA PEDICINI AWARD FOR WOMEN FILMMAKERS UNDER 40
The jury, composed of Gina Annunziata (author and teacher – Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli), Antonella Di Nocera (director of the showcase “Venezia a Napoli: Il cinema esteso”), Titta Fiore (journalist and film critic, President of the Film Commission Regione Campania), Anna Masecchia (author and teacher –  Università degli Studi di Firenze), and Cristina Piccino (journalist and film critic) has bestowed the above award for Best Screenplay on:
Mayra Hermosillo for Vainilla

THE CINEMA & ARTS AWARD
The jury, composed of the international filmmaker Alessio Nardin, the film critic and scholar Oliviero Ponte di Pino, and the young actor Antonio Giuseppe Bia, joined by a group of students in the undergraduate acting and film-directing program at the Accademia Eleonora Duse Centro Sperimentale di Cinema e Arti Performative, along with actors from the Accademia Duse’s international masterclasses, have bestowed the Award for Best Film on two films, The Tale of Silyan by Tamara Kotevska, and:
Qui vit encore (Who is still alive) by Nicolas Wadimoff
The jury has released the following statement:
“Qui vit encore (Who Is Still Alive) is a film that displays, as if in a brutal photography exhibition, the intimate portraits of nine inhabitants of Gaza whose lives have been shattered by the Israeli attacks, yet they have managed to escape to Egypt.
The symbolic reconstruction of the map of Gaza on the floor of a theater studio, where the places they used to live are roughly drawn, bring together men and women from different social contexts, often survivors of the bombing of their homes, who now share their memories of their lives before the war, the loss of their dear ones, their neighborhoods, and their entire world, reduced to rubble.
The film is a stark reminder of what went on and still does in Gaza. The “documentary theater” method is used as a contemporary ritual that does not merely simulate the situation; it wields a powerful expressive medium that brings home to viewers, with an unsparing immediacy and realism, the plight of these lives imploded by war.
Whoever sees these images and hears these words is forced to discard their position as a passive spectator and bear witness to a senseless, unacceptable devastation.
The clean lines and the precision of the cinematography reward viewers with a different perception, as the scenes evoked in the first-hand accounts are superimposed on the images that parade past on the screen, in a genuine example of meta-cinema.
The film by Nicolas Wadimoff is a concrete social and political gesture that never descends into rhetoric or sentimentalism. As a counterpoint to the statistics, with the number of victims growing day by day, it shows people’s real lives, their individual stories and identities, their relationships and daily lives savaged by violence, fear, pain, and grief. It’s a cinematic gaze on the chronicles of Gaza – a job that normally goes to the news media.
Qui vit encore aims to rekindle and preserve a personal and collective memory that risks being wiped out altogether: that of daily lives, streets, homes, and above all lives destroyed by war. But it is also a testament to survival, suffering, and the patience and resilience of those who offer their accounts with great dignity, in a theatrical ritual that takes on a social and historical dimension.”

FRED AWARD
The award that FRED Film Radio hands out every year during the Venice Film Festival, to a figure who fosters the growth of independent film and intercultural dialogue, goes this year to:
Dag Johan Haugerud
The Norwegian filmmaker, President of the Giornate degli Autori jury, has recently completed his trilogy Sex – Love – Dreams, which paints a fascinating broad canvas of contemporary Europe and has received unanimous critical acclaim from Berlin to Venice, and an array of awards culminating in the 2025 Golden Bear.
FRED Film Radio has released the following statement:
“A bold and unique voice of European cinema today, creator of a filmography that is deeply humane and intellectually sophisticated. Haugerud’s oeuvre tackles sensitive issues – gender, queer identify, social roles – with warmth, intelligence, and a remarkable psychological clarity. His characters struggle with their inner contradictions and social expectations in a way that is never showy or overstated, but generates empathy and reflection. FRED Film Radio particularly appreciates Haugerud’s commitment to an audacious cinema of ideas that prompts us to ask who we are and how we live. His films challenge, stir, and transform audiences – embodying all the ideals of inclusivity that are at the heart of FRED’s own mission.”

THE CARLO LIZZANI AWARD FOR BEST ITALIAN FILM
The 2025 Carlo Lizzani Award for Best Italian Film has been instituted by ANAC, the National Filmmakers’ Association, and made possible by the support of MiC’s Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual, the Roma Lazio Film Commission, and AUT-AUTORI, in collaboration with ANEC, ACEC, and FICE. It is bestowed by Italy’s most courageous exhibitors in 2025 – Marco Fortunato and the team at the Cinemazero in Pordenone and Lidia Lovaglio and her staff at the Cinema Lovaglio di Venosa (PZ) – and is awarded to:
Confiteor – come scoprii che non avrei fatto la rivoluzione by Bonifacio Angius
The following statement has been released:
“No mere confession, the film is a search for one’s identity and roots that turns into an admission of fragility and doubt, impossible not to relate to. Alternating a grotesque comic vein to moments of violence, Angius bares his soul with sincerity and courage.  Never compromising, and with a mastery of the cinematic medium, he succeeds in shaping a powerful, unified narrative, proving he is one of Italy’s most vibrant filmmakers.”

THE BOOKCIAK AWARD TO THE BEST FILM ADAPTATION OF A LITERARY WORK
The jury composed of Steve Della Casa (film critic and curator of the National Film Archives), Camillo De Marco (film critic for Cineuropa), and Flavio Natalia (editor of Ciak), under the artistic direction of Gabriella Gallozzi, has bestowed a Special Mention on:
Écrire la vie. Annie Ernaux racontée par des lycéennes et des lycéens by Claire Simon
The jury has released the following statement:
“The contemporary relevance of the Nobel-Prize-winning author’s novels bursts out in the stories recounted by the rising generations, offering a gaze on the future.”

THE BISATO D’ORO AWARD
The jury, composed of Paolo De Cesare (President), Violeta Bava, Maria Giovanna Vagenas, Rüdiger Suchsland, and Giovanni Bogani, awarded the prize for best screenplay and best cinematography to
Gabriel Azorín and Giuseppe Truppi for Anoche conquisté Tebas by Gabriel Azorín
The jury has released the following statement:
“At the archaeological site of a Roman thermal complex, where hot waters still murmur through ancient stones, time folds upon itself, and history seeps into the present. Here, the layers of human intimacy and connection reveal themselves, fragile yet profound. In the phantom shadows of night, vision sharpens, senses awaken, language drifts between past and present, carving a rift yet conjuring a rare immediacy. Anoche conquisté Tebas emerges as a quiet miracle. For its ethereal storytelling and visual mastery, it is honored with the Bisato Award for Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography.”