Festival

Margaret Mazzantini

(Italy)

Debuted in 1994 with the novel Il catino di zinco, followed by the play Manola (1999) and the editorial success Non ti muovere (Don’t Move, 2001), which won the Premio Strega and was turned into a movie in 2004 by her husband Sergio Castellitto. Her next novels, Venuto al mondo (Twice born, published in 2008, Campiello Award in 2009, and brought to the silver screen in 2012) and Nessuno si salva da solo (You Can’t Save Yourself Alone, 2011, becoming a movie in 2015) were also directed by Castellitto. In 2010, she published Mare al mattino, which won both the Pavese Prize and the Matteotti Prize. In 2017, she wrote the storyline and the screenplay of Fortunata and in 2021, the screenplay of Il materiale emotivo (based on a storyline by Ettore Scola), both of which were directed by Castellitto. Her most recent novel is entitled Splendore (2013).

Milcho Manchevski

(Macedonia)

Has directed seven features (Before the Rain, 1994; Dust, 2001; Shadows, 2007; Mothers, 2011; Bikini Moon, 2017; Willow, 2019; Kaymak, 2022), 50 shorts (including some critical acclaimed videoclips), and an episode of The Wire, winning over 50 international awards (including Golden Lion in Venice and an Academy Award nomination). He has lived in New York since film school, writing fiction (The Ghost of My Mother) and essays (Manchevski: Five Essays), taking photographs (Street, Five Drops of Dream and There), creating art (1AM) and teaching at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema in Brooklyn.

Anne Parillaud

(France)

Debuted as an actress working with Michel Lang, Alain Delon, and Ettore Scola, before playing the famous role of Nikita in the same-titled movie by Luc Besson, for which she won a César and a David di Donatello. After Innocent Blood by John Landis (1992), she returned to Europe and worked with Claude Lelouch, Raúl Ruiz, Catherine Breillat, Amos Gitai, and Olivier Marchal. Over the course of her career, she has shared the screen with some of the world’s most famous actors, including Alain Delon, Jeanne Moreau, Jeremy Irons, Marcello Mastroianni, Matt Dillon, Jacques Perrin, and Catherine Deneuve. In 2022, she performed alongside the director Giulio Base in the film he directed, À la recherche.

Giovanni Spagnoletti

(Italy)

Taught film history from 1991 to 2019 at the La Sapienza and Tor Vergata universities in Rome. He has written for “Bianco &Nero,” “Cineforum,” “Il Manifesto,” “L’Unità,” “Il Mattino,” “Rinascita,” “L’Espresso,” “Süddeutsche Zeitung,” and “Frankfurter Rundschau,” and edited the magazine “Close-up” and the magazine’s online version. He has written and edited publications in Italy, Germany, and France. From 2000 to 2014, he was the director of the Pesaro International Film Festival and was the president of the AFIC (the Association of Italian Film Festivals) for six years. In 1993 and in 1996, he received the Filippo Sacchi prize as a university lecturer, and in 2019 he received Hamburg’s Reinhold Schünzel Award as a film scholar.

Krzysztof Zanussi

(Poland)

Directed many internationally acclaimed and award-winning films (in Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Moscow, Chicago, Montreal, Berlin, Tokio): The Structure of Crystal (1968), Illumination (1973), Camouflage (1976), Constant Factor (1980), The Year of Quiet Sun (1984), Wherever You Are If You Are (1988), In Full Gallop (1996), Persona Non Grata (2004), Revisited (2009), Foreign Body (2014). He is also a theatre director, he authored several books and is Professor at Silesian University in Katowice. President of Tor Film Production, producer of the films by Kieślowski, Holland and many others. At the 42TFF he presents his last feature, Perfect Number (2022).

Roberta Torre

(Italy)

Director, screenwriter, and playwright, she was born in Milan and studied at the Scuola Luchino Visconti and at the Scuola Paolo Grassi. She debuted in 1997 in the musical Tano da morire (To Die for Tano), presented in Venice, and afterward made Angela (2002), Mare nero (The Dark Sea, 2006), I baci mai dati (Lost Kisses, 2011), Riccardo va all’inferno (Bloody Richard, 2017), with which she participated at various festivals (Cannes, Sundance, IDFA) and received David di Donatello and Silver Ribbon awards. For her performance in Le Favolose (The Fabulous Ones, 2022), presented at the Giornate degli Autori in Venice, she won the award for best directing at IDFA and the Grand Jury Prize at the L.A. OutFest. Mi fanno male i capelli (In the Mirror, 2023) won the award for best actress at the Rome Film Festival.

KD Davison

(USA)

An award-winning director, with her third documentary feature, Fragments of Paradise, on the life and work of avant-garde icon Jonas Mekas, won a Lion for Best Documentary on Cinema at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival and a Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC. In 2020, she directed the film adaptation of Jon Meacham’s The Soul of America and in 2017 co-directed her first feature, Ordinary People, in collaboration with Natalie Johns. She completed a book about the 2008 Recession and is currently developing The Housing Theory of Everything, a series on the American housing crisis.

Federico Gironi

(Italy)

Critic, journalist, and festival organizer, for over twenty years he has worked with the group Coming Soon. For many years he was a member of the TFF selection committee and at present co-curates, with Alberto Barbera, the Venezia Classici section of the Venice Film Festival. He writes, or has written, for magazines such as “Cineforum,” “Duellanti,” “Duels,” “Otto e mezzo,” “Nocturno,” “Le parole e le cose,” for the dailies “Il Messaggero” and “Domani,” and has published essays in various monographs about directors and actors. A member of the jury for the David di Donatello awards, he is also a member of the commission that designates the Film della Critica nominees for the SNCCI (National Union of Italian Film Critics). He also teaches film theory and analysis at NABA.

Michela Cescon

(Italy)

Actress, producer, and director for the stage and the screen, studied at the school of the Teatro Stabile di Torino; she debuted in 1995, directed by Luca Ronconi, and then collaborated with Valter Malosti, Roberto Andò, and Marco Tullio Giordana. In 2003, she performed in Primo amore (First Love) by Matteo Garrone and later worked with directors such as Ozpetek, Bellocchio, Giordana, Sorrentino, De Matteo, and Cristina Comencini. In 2010, she debuted as a director with the short Come un soffio, presented in Venice, and in 2020 she directed her first feature film, Occhi blu (Blue Eyes). She has won three Ubu awards, a David di Donatello, and a Silver Ribbon for her performance in Romanzo di una strage (Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy).

Darko Perić

(Serbia)

He has lived in Serbia, Romania and Germany, where he has acted in several independent shorts and theater shows. In 2008 he began his career in Spain, where in 2010 he starred in the tv series Crematorio and in 2015 in A Perfect Day by Fernando León de Aranoa, set during the Balkan war and also starring Benicio Del Toro and Tim Robbins. In 2016 he was cast in the series Mar de plástico, gaining greater visibility in the Spanish film industry, and in 2017 he found success thanks to the role of Helsinski in La casa de papel, the most successful Netflix production. In 2018 the series won an Emmy Award in the Best Drama category.

Nicola Nocella

(Italy)

Actor, writer, director, and producer, he received a Silver Ribbon for best newcomer of the year for his debut performance in the movie Il figlio più piccolo (The Youngest Son, 2010) by Pupi Avati. He won another Silver Ribbon the next year for his performance in the short Omero bello-di-nonna (2011). In 2018, he was nominated for a David di Donatello for the film Easy – Un viaggio facile facile (Easy) by Andrea Magnani, for which he won a Golden Ciak. In 2022, he wrote and starred in Rido perché ti amo by Paolo Ruffini and in 2024 Lo chiamava Rock & Roll by Saverio Smeriglio. He has worked with directors such as Guido Chiesa, Leonardo Pieraccioni, Daniele Ciprì, Giulio Base, and Roberto Andò, alternating stage and screen.

Giuseppe Di Salvatore

(Italy)

Has been trained as philosopher in Rome and Paris, worked as researcher in Geneva and created a Research Centre in Verona. After two years working as video-journalist, in 2016 together with Ruth Baettig he has founded Filmexplorer, an online platform entirely focused on the discourse around art films, of which he is the editor-in-chief. Since then he is active as film and art critic, and has also got experience as film and art curator, in selection committee, festival industry and as panellist.

Marco Lombardi

(Italy)

Film and foodcritic (“Il Messaggero,”“Cinecritica,”“Radio Roma Capitale”), and author and presenter of the tv show Come ti cucino un film. He teaches Cultural Journalism in Sapienza university, and Cultural events Psychology in UniPegaso. He wrote essays (La Cinegustologia e il Media Entertainment, Gustose visioni) and novels (I nuovi amici, Terremotività, GiokaconMe, Ti ho lasciato il minestrone in garage). He was the co-producer and co-screenwriter of Nel blu by Emiliano Dante (2009), and director of the short Fritto dalle stelle (2021). From 2005 to 2008 he was programmer of Critic’s Week in Venice Film Festival.

Ieva Šukytė

(Lithuania)

Graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts with MA in History and Theory of Arts. Since 2013 she has been working as a freelance film critic contributing to various outlets in Lithuania, including Lithuanian National Radio and Television and Goethe Institute. Recently she began assisting with programming for Vilnius International Short Film Festival.