Two official juries
The “Windows on the World” Feature Film Competition Jury awards the Comune di Milano “Windows on the World” Prize for the Best Feature Film.
For the second year, thanks to the collaboration with the Italian Union of Film Critics – SNCCI, a Jury made up of three film critics will award the Critics’ Prize – SNCCI to the Best Film in the Extr’A Competition, offered this year by a new partner of the FESCAAAL, the association Terre des Hommes Italia, and the Prize for the Best African Short Film.
Official prizes
“Windows on the Word” Feature Film Competition
Comune di Milano “Windows on the World” Best Feature Film Award – 8.000 €
African Short Film Competition
Best African Short Film Award – 2.000 €
Extr’A Competition
SNCCI Film Critics Award to the Best Film in the Extr’A Competition offered by Terres des Hommes Italia– 1.000 €
Special Awards
City of Milano Audience Award
To the most voted film by the public.
CINIT Award
The prize, which consists in the acquisition of distribution rights in Italy, is awarded to an African short film with education value.
ACEC Award
he prize, which consists of the acquisition of distribution rights in Italy, is awarded to a feature film in competition by a jury nominated by ACEC.
ACEC Milano, the Catholic Association of Cinema Operators, is a free trade association that, without profit, represents, promotes and protects the over 100 community cinemas associated with it present in its territory. They are multifunctional places, used as cinemas and theaters, conference venues, and have always been cultural centers in their territories.
Multimedia San Paolo / Telenova Award
The prize consists of the acquisition of home-video rights in Italy for an African short film.
Terre des Hommes - Italy Award
The prize is awarded to the best film at the festival which promotes the rights of children and adolescents.
The official Juries
“Windows on the World” Feature Film Competition Jury
Lav Diaz
PRESIDENT
Lav Diaz, (Datu Paglas, 1958), is a Filipino film director, screenwriter, film producer, cinematographer, editor and actor. He is often known as one of the key members of the slow cinema movement and has made some of the longest narrative films ever made. Diaz is one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary filmmakers. Diaz’s films have received acclaim and numerous awards. From What Is Before (2014) won the Golden Leopard at the 2014 Locarno International Film Festival; A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery competed for the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival and won the Alfred Bauer Prize (Silver Bear), and The Woman Who Left participated in the 73rd Venice International Film Festival and won the Golden Lion. In 2023 with When the Waves Are Gone he returned to Venice and he presented Essential Truths of the Lake at the Locarno Festival the same year.
Ali Asgari
Ali Asgari was born in Tehran, Iran. He studied cinema in Italy. He is an alumnus of the Berlinale Talent Campus 2013. Two of his short films, More Than Two Hours (2013) and The Silence (2016, co-directed with Farnoosh Samadi), were in competition at Cannes Film Festival, where they competed for the Short Film Palme d'Or. His short film The Baby premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2014. His short films have been screened at more than 600 film festivals around the world, including Sundance, BFI London and Melbourne and have won more than 150 international awards Disappearance is his first feature film: the script was developed at Cannes Film Festival's Cinéfondation and the film was selected for Venice and Toronto IFF. In 2022 Until Tomorrow was selected in the Berlinale Panorama and in 2023 Terrestrial Verses, co-directed with Alireza Khatami, was in the official selection at Cannes Film Festival, presented at Un Certain Regard.
Anastasia Plazzotta
Anastasia Plazzotta, CEO of Wanted Cinema, graduated from Ca' Foscari University in Venice in Eurasian languages and literature followed by a Master's degree in storytelling techniques at the Holden School in Turin. She worked at Fandango Libri as editor-in-chief and at Fandango Doc, where she coordinated the production and distribution of documentaries. From 2005 to 2020, she collaborated with Feltrinelli Editore where she was in charge of the video section of the publishing house and editor of the Feltrinelli Real Cinema series. In 2014, she founded Wanted Cinema, a film distribution company specialised in worldwide award-winning arthouse films and European titles. Sick of Myself, Sur les chemins noirs, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, Simple comme Sylvain and Le théorème de Marguerite are just some of the latest films released by Wanted. She has been a member of the board of Europa Distribution since 2023.
The official Juries
African Short Film Competition and Extr’A Competition Jury
Nicola Falcinella
PRESIDENT
A journalist, he is the film critic for the daily newspapers L’Eco di Bergamo and La Provincia, for balcanicaucaso.org and a number of magazines. He has also contributed to il manifesto, Repubblica, MYmovies.it and many other publications. He is a selector and consultant for a number of European festivals, including for the Settimana della critica of Venice from 2013 to 2015. He has published books on Agnès Varda and Alida Valli and chapters in other collective works. He directed the prologue of the film Dietro la porta (2023) by Mario Brenta and Karin de Villers.
Ilaria Falcone
With a degree in Comparative Public Law, she is a journalist and film and literary critic. She writes about the cinema and television series for a number of publications, including il Morandini - Dizionario di Cinema e delle Serie Tv, and for nonsolocinema.com she writes reviews, in-depth articles and covers festivals such as the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. She is the artistic director of the “Luci in Sala” film club and of the Arena Estiva in the Ligurian town where she was born.
Simone Soranna
Simone Soranna, born in 1991, lectures on Cinema at the Università Statale and at the Università Cattolica di Milano, is a critic for Film Tv and Cineforum, managing editor of CineCriticaWeb (the online portal of the Italian Union of Film Critics) and works as a TV journalist and correspondent for Sky Cinema. He founded and is deputy director of the film criticism portal longtake.it and has published two books on animated cinema for Bietti Edizioni.