Villa Medici Film Festival – 2022 Edition

The Villa Medici Film Festival returns for its second edition!
From 14 to 18 September 2022 

THE PROGRAMME

The festival is divided into three sections: the International Competition, the Focus films and the Piazzale open air screenings.

  • The International Competition

The festival highlights 14 competition films of different lengths and genres (documentary, fiction, essay), made in 2021-2022 by artists and filmmakers whose works are distinguished by the singularity of their purpose or form. The competition films will be screened during the day in the cinema room and in the Grand Salon of Villa Medici, which reopens its doors for the occasion after six months of restoration work on the Balthus decorations. The directors will be in attendance.

  • The Focus selection

The Focus section presents films by artists out of competition, masterclasses and talks that will allow festival-goers to engage in unique explorations of the art of cinema with the judges, artists and filmmakers.

  • The Piazzale open air screenings

In parallel with the official competition films screened during the day, festival-goers will enjoy nightly open-air screenings on the Piazzale, in front of the historic façade and gardens of Villa Medici, of recent films – including many previews – but also restored classics of cinema.  

THE JURY

This year, the panel is composed of three figures from the world of cinema, visual arts and literature:

Marie Losier is a film director and producer born in 1972 in Boulogne-Billancourt (France). After 20 years working in New York, she is now based in Paris. She produces avant-garde, intimate and poetic portraits of filmmakers, musicians and artists such as Alan Vega, the Kuchar brothers, Guy Maddin, Richard Foreman, Tony Conrad and April March. Her work has been presented at the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlinale, the Tate Modern, the MoMA, the Palais de Tokyo, the Pompidou Centre, the Whitney Museum, the Jeu de Paume, the Pernod Ricard Foundation, the Cinémathèque Française and the Greek Film Archive.
Read the full biography

Pietro Marcello is an Italian film director born in Caserta in 1976. His first feature film, Il Passaggio della linea, a documentary shot at night on Italian express trains, was presented in 2007 at the Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti section and won numerous awards when it was released. In 2009, he directed the dramatic documentary La Bocca del Lupo, which won the prize for best film at the 27th Turin Film Festival, the Caligari Prize, and the Teddy Award at the Berlinale.
Read the full biography

Sylvain Prudhomme was born in 1979 in La Seyne-sur-Mer (France). An author of novels and reportage, he received the Femina prize in 2019 for his novel Par les routes (published by Gallimard). His work draws on lived realities from around the world and exists at the crossroads of documentary and fiction. Modern Africa — where he lived and worked for a long time (Senegal, Niger, Burundi, Mauritius) — is one of the main sources of inspiration for his books. He has translated the essay La Décolonisation de l’esprit by the Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o (La Fabrique, 2011).
Read the full biography

At the end of the festival week, two prizes will be awarded by the judges during a closing evening that brings audience and artists together: the Villa Medici Prize for best film and the Jury Prize for a film that has caught the judges’ attention. The winning filmmakers will be offered the opportunity of a residency at Villa Medici.

THE WINNING FILMS

On Saturday 17 September at 8.30 p.m., on the stage set up on the Piazzale, the awards ceremony for the second international competition of the Villa Medici Film Festival, dedicated to works that explore contemporary practices of the moving image, took place.

VILLA MEDICI PRIZE FOR BEST FILM
THE FIELDS OF WORDS, Rania Stephan

Premiering in the world in the occasion of the festival, The fields of words wins the Villa Medici Prize for Best Film. Rania Stephan, born in Lebanon, navigates between video art and creative documentary. Can cinema and literature capture the tragedy of war? In dialogue with Syrian writer Samar Yazbek, her film weaves visual and sound elements together to make sense of the violence in the world. The winner receives a prize of 5,000 euros and a creative residency at Villa Medici.

SPECIAL PRIZE OF THE JURY
GIGI LA LEGGE, Alessandro Comodin

Alessandro Comodin, who works in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, where he grew up. His film tells the story of Gigi, a rural police officer in a village where nothing ever happens. One day however, a young girl throws herself under a train. This is not the first time that this has happened. Facing this unexplainable suicide wave, Gigi starts investigating a strange world, between reality and fantasy. The winner receives a prize of 3,000 euros and a creative residency at Villa Medici.

Download the press release

PARTNERS OF THE FESTIVAL

The Villa Medici Film Festival would like to thank the partners who are supporting its second edition:

Cover image: © M3studio

Portrait of Marie Losier © Bertrand Jacquot
Portrait of Pietro Marcello © Kris Dewitte
Portrait of Sylvain Prudhomme © Francesca Mantovani
Portraits of Rania Stephan and Alessandro Comodin © Daniele Molajoli