Premio Cinema dell’Anima 2024
Friday 28 June at 21:00 at the Giardino Pubblico
Friday 28 June at 21:00 at the Giardino Pubblico
An enduring artistic spirit, a narrator of stories that are as territorial and ethically his own as they are universal, capable of developing a special art of dramatic drawing, evocative and imaginative yet deeply realistic. The past narrated to him is grafted into the present of moving pictures, brim-full of farmworkers, the countryside, animals, children, women, amidst the seasons, wars, pacifications, in a distant place made up of familiar places that runs on tracks of memory and expectation, now and forever. The breeding ground where Simone Massi was born, works and still lives, the small and noble Pergola in the Pesaro hinterland, has something of the Recanati of Leopardi about it. He has the support of his wife Julia Gromskaja (polychromatic artist and director) and three children, a formative past as factory worker and a diploma in animation filmmaking from the Istituto d’Arte in Urbino. He was later a kingpin of ALMA (a non-random acronym for Associazione Libera Marchigiana Animatori) founded in 2020. In 2016 he created Animavì – Festival of Poetic Animation in Pergola, which was unfortunately discontinued after four remarkable events (Wenders, Sokurov, Kusturica, Servillo, Herlitzka, Cuticchio went there with open hearts). Writer of the theme song for the 2012-2016 Venice Film Festival, he has won around 900 awards worldwide for his 27 short films (including three Nastri d’Argento and one David di Donatello in Italy). After 10 years’ work, his first feature film, Invelle, a masterpiece of pictorial-political consciousness – three generations of Italy with the topical themes of the First World War, Nazi fascism and terrorism – was included in the Orizzonti section of Venice 2023.
Massi thus defines his extra ordinary technique… no computer: “It is made up of oil pastels spread on paper and then scratched with engraving tools such as awls and gouges. It is a work of subtraction, digging to bring out the light.”
There it is: the light always moving in his black and white films and in moments of dazzling red and blue. Massi’s drawing is much more than animation, it is necessary cinema of the soul. His own.
Maurizio di Rienzo
Simone Massi was born in Pergola (Pesaro-Urbino) in 1970. In 1993, he left his factory job and enrolled at the Istituto Statale d’Arte in Urbino, where he obtained a Maestro d’Arte diploma and a diploma in animation films (100/100 cum laude) from the specialisation course.
Internationally recognised as one of the most important animated filmmakers, since 1994 he has conceived, created and directed one feature film and 27 animated shorts, films that have garnered 1712 selections and 895 awards at festivals in 101 countries around the world. In his career, he has collected a total of 915 awards including a David di Donatello (three nominations), three Nastri d’Argento (eleven nominations), and a Premio Flaiano.
He was the creator of the poster and theme song for the 69th to the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, a festival that honoured him with a special screening of all his works in 2012.
2023 Invelle
Il corpo del mondo
2022 A guerra finita
In quanto a noi
2021 Ad ogni alba
2020 L’infinito
2014 L’attesa del maggio
2013 Animo resistente
2012 Venezia / Massi
Lieve, dilaga
2011 Fare fuoco
Dell’ammazzare il maiale
2009 Nuvole, mani
2006 La memoria dei cani
2003 Piccola mare
2001 Tengo la posizione
Pittore aereo
1998-2004 Io so chi sono
1996-1997-2001 Il giorno che vidi i sorci verdi
1999 Adombra
1998 Ecco, adesso
1997 Keep on! Keepin’on!
1996 Niente
Racconti
1995 Millennio
In aprile
Immemoria
Associazione Maremetraggio
c/o Casa del Cinema, piazza Duca degli Abruzzi 3, 34132 Trieste (TS)
maremetraggio@pec.it - ID 90090770323 - VAT IT01033380328
Transparent Administration - Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy