Italy has just celebrated a unique selection at Hot Docs, the documentary’s festival of Toronto and the most important kermesse of genre in the world, when yet the Italian documentary achieves another prestigious success in Copenhagen, at CPH:DOX, the most important appointment dedicated to the cinema of reality in Scandinavia, and third worldwide appointment for the documentary filmmakers, won by Beautiful Things by Giorgio Ferrero, whom in turn won at Next:Wave Award, dedicated to emerging filmmakers. This is a relevant International affirmation for the movie – already presented at the last Venice Film Festival – that wants to explore the theme of consumerism and its obsession in the contemporary world through the shape of a “symphonic journey”. It is a movie that the Jury in Copenhagen thinks to ‘marry originality, style, meaning, rigor and surprise’. And it crowns also here a rich Italian presence in a selection where we could find in the different sections, Piazza Vittorio by Abel Ferrara, Looking for Oum Kulthum by Shirin Neshat, Hanaa by Giuseppe Carrieri, The Strange Sound of Happiness by Diego Pascal Panarello and The Milk System by Andreas Pichler.
Concerning the meaning and the importance of this Award, in a festival that at its 15th edition has an history and an influence in the European perception of the documentary, the words of Niklas Engstrøm, Head Programmer at Copenhagen: "2018 has been a beautiful year for Italian documentaries at CPH:DOX - with excitingly brave titles like The Strange Sound of Happiness, Hanaa, Abel Ferrera's Piazza Vittorio and not least Beautiful Things, Giorgio Ferrero and Federico Biasin's bold, original and inventive film that celebrated its international premiere in Copenhagen and ended up winning the festival's NEXT:WAVE AWARD for best film by a new talent on the international documentary circuit. With films as beautiful and musical as this being made in Italy at the moment, we are certain that more great works will come out of Italy and into the programme of CPH:DOX in the coming years".
The selection of documentaries at CPH:DOX of Copenhagen is coordinated by Istituto Luce Cinecittà-Filmitalia.