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Features Section Jury

Giorgio Diritti (Jury Chair)
Giorgio Diritti is an Italian director, screenwriter and editor. He trained by working alongside various Italian filmmakers, particularly Pupi Avati. He belongs to Ipotesi Cinema, an institute for training young filmmakers founded and directed by Ermanno Olmi. He writes and directs documentaries, short films and television programs. His debut film, Il vento fa il suo giro (2005), participated in over 60 national and international festivals, winning over 36 awards. The film gained national renown and continued to be shown at the Cinema Mexico in Milan for over a year and a half. His other films include L’uomo che verrà (2009) and Un giorno devi andare (2013). In 2014 he published his first novel, Noi due.

Gianni Amelio
Director Gianni Amelio studied philosophy at the University of Messina before making his debut behind the camera in 1970 in the RAI studios. His first big-screen outing was in 1982. He has won innumerable awards, including an Oscar nomination for Porte Aperte and a Leone d’Oro for E così ridevano. With Il ladro di bambini, his biggest commercial success, he won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1992 and the European Film Award for best film, as well as two Nastro d’Argento awards, five David di Donatello awards and five Ciak d’Oro awards. With Lamerica in 1994 he won the Osella d’Oro at the Venice Film Festival, as well as the Pasinetti prize for best film. For several years he taught directing at the CSC and directed the Torino Film Festival. He has also been a jury member at the Venice Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival. His latest work, in cinemas now, is La tenerezza.

Alberto Barbera
Alberto Barbera is an Italian film critic. After graduating with a degree in Modern Literature he became the president of the AIACE (the Italian association for friends of arthouse cinema) in Turin in 1977. Since 1980 he has worked as a film critic for various magazines, radio shows and newspapers. A collaboration with the TFF (Torino Film Festival) began in 1982, and he later became its director. He has also served as director of the National Museum of Cinema in Turin. Since 2008, he has been the president of TorinoFilmLab. He currently directs the Venice Film Festival.

Luciana Castellina
Journalist, writer, politician, Communist MP, MEP and since 2014 honorary president of ARCI, Luciana Castellina is one of the top intellectuals in Italian culture. After graduating with a degree in law from La Sapienza University in Rome she enrolled in the PCI, became an official of the FGCI and served as editor and contributor for many publications including Nuova Generazione, Il Paese, Il manifesto, Liberazione and Pace e Guerra. She became a collaborator on the women’s section of the PCI, a member of the board of the UDI, the leader of the Democrazia Proletaria, a member of the PDUP and Rifondazione comunista, the president of various committees in the European Parliament and, between 2007 and 2010, a lecturer at the University of Pisa. She has been involved in many demonstrations and been arrested several times, and is one of Italy and Europe’s most important leftwing activists.

Paola Farinetti
Producer and cultural entrepreneur, she was a consultant at Turin’s Teatro Stabile, then for seven years the director of the Teatro Sociale in Alba and culture and tourism councilor for the City of Alba. Currently she works on music and theater, putting on performances and events across Italy and abroad with her production company Fuorivia.

Enrico Magrelli
A journalist, film critic and radio and television writer, since 1994 Enrico Magrelli has been the writer and presenter of Hollywood Party on RaiTre. Vice-director of the Bif&st and a consultant for the Tuscia Film Fest and the Italian Film Festival Berlin, since 2007 he has also been the co-director of the Bobbio Film Festival and collaborated with the Goethe-Institut. Among his many other roles he has also been a television writer, a consultant for the Venice Film Festival, the director of the Settimana della Critica, a member of the Culture Ministry’s commission, curator of the Cineteca Nazionale and film news editor for Tele+. He has written for L’Europeo, Panorama and specialist publications, editing various special issues, the 2015 David and many books and also written monographs and essays.

Maurizio Molinari
Maurizio Molinari is an Italian journalist and writer and since January 1, 2016 has been the editor of the daily La Stampa, after working as a correspondent for the newspaper since 1997. He has contributed as a commentator and analyst to La7, RaiNews24, Sky TG 24 and Tg5. Molinari has also published many book on topical issues including Judaism, American politics and jihadist terrorism.

Liborio Termine
A university lecturer, Liborio Termine currently teaches History and Criticism of Communication at the University of Enna in Sicily after spending many years in Turin, first as holder of the chair in History and Criticism of Communication at the University of Turin, then as chair of the Faculty of Languages there. He is the author of many books on film-related subjects.

Cheikna Thiam
Cheikna Thiam was born in Senegal in 1985. In 2011 he co-founded the Jokko association for the promotion of permaculture in Dakar. In 2014, the project was expanded with an eco-village in Casamance and the creation of Bégué Coco for the artisanal and sustainable production of coconut oil and other coconut products. In 2016 he started the “Environment’s Cool” project for schools. He is currently studying at UNISG.

Alice Waters
Alice Waters is a chef, restaurateur and activist from the United States. In 1971 she opened the restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, developing a supply network of producers of local, sustainable, ecological food. In 1996 she started the Edible Schoolyard at a middle school in Berkeley to promote sustainable eating at a local level. Here students could not only experiment with growing their own fruits and vegetables, but also learn how to cook their lunches. The same year, she set up the Chez Panisse Foundation and later launched the Garden Project. Since 2002 she has served as an international vice-president of Slow Food.

Shorts Section Jury

Emanuele Crialese (Jury Chair)
Director and screenwriter Emanuele Crialese is a talented storyteller who deals with many different aspects of immigration. Born in Rome to a Sicilian family, he studied in New York, where he made his debut with Once We Were Strangers (1997), funded by selling his great-grandmother’s earrings. It starred Vincenzo Amato, the alter ego who reappeared in Respiro (2002) with Valeria Golino and Nuovomondo (2006), winner of a Leone d’Argento and three David di Donatello awards. In Terraferma (2011), his most recent film, a critical and popular success, he dealt with the theme of emigration from Africa. In 2014 he was recognized for his work with the National Peace Culture Prize.

Francesco Amato
Lasciati andare, with Toni Servillo playing the Jewish psychoanalyst, is the latest film to be directed (and co-written) by Francesco Amato. Since 2007 he has been writing scripts for ITC Movie and Cattleya, as well as teaching directing at the Scuola Holden and the CSC in Rome and Palermo. His films include the David-nominated Ma che ci faccio qui!, documentaries about the African Slow Food Presidia, the award-winning Cosimo e Nicole with Riccardo Scamarcio and Figlio di penna, a short film presented at Cannes which won the Torino Film Festival and Visioni Italiane. He also directed the music video for Marlene Kuntz’s “Seduzioni.”

Victoria Cabello
Victoria Cabello is an Italian television presenter and actress. She made her first big-screen appearance as an extra in 1995 and her television debut in 1996, but fame came in 1997 when she started working as a VJ on MTV Italia. Since 2002 she has been a correspondent for the television program Le Iene and presented the talk show Very Victoria as well as the Sanremo Festival in 2006 and Quelli che il Calcio. She was a cast member for the film Il cosmo sul comò. In 2014 she was a judge on the talent show X Factor, but after a few months she took a break from television.

Lella Costa
Milanese actress Gabriella “Lella” Costa is one of the most important figures in Italian theater, famous most of all for her monologues. As well as dubbing and radio work, she is also widely known for her television appearances, such as on the comedy program Zelig. She has also appeared in a number of films. She is very active in the non-profit world, and has been a spokesperson for Gino Strada’s Emergency for many years. She works tirelessly in defense of civil rights, and has appeared in many of Peacereporter’s national campaigns.

Jacopo Fo
Writer, actor, director, comic artist, blogger and activist Jacopo Fo is the son of Dario Fo and Franca Rame. He began working for magazines and comics at a very young age. Since 1978 Fo has been one of the writers for Il Male, a popular satirical weekly. One of his most successful books has been Lo zen e l’arte di scopare. He is the founder of the magazine Cacao, which later led him to the web as part of the Libera Università di Alcatraz project he launched in 1979. His Enciclopedia del sesso sublime has been published in installments and 12 volumes. Active in civil rights and social solidarity struggles, he also writes a personal blog where he expresses his own political and social opinions.

Ali Haidar Alsharani
Born on January 17, 1996, Ali Haidar Alsharani is from Salamyia, a Syrian city that is home to a religious minority, the Ismailis, a branch of Shia Islam that follows the Aga Khan. Salamyia is in western Syria, in the province of Hama, north of Homs. The city has been sucked into the bloody war on-going in the country, but has been spared from the rule of the Caliphate. Ali’s family had a farm and worked in agriculture. His father was one of the representatives of the Syrian food communities who participated in the 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 Terra Madre events. In 2014 Ali’s family requested refugee status in Germany. Ali is a talented musician who plays the violin and the guitar and is currently studying at the University of Gastronomic Sciences.

Dieter Kosslick
Dieter Kosslick is the director of the Berlin Film Festival. He studied communication, politics and education in Munich before starting his career in Hamburg in 1979 as a ghostwriter and spokesman for local politicians and as a journalist. He is the co-founder of the European Film Distribution Office, and has been director of the Berlinale since 2001.

Isabella Rossellini
Isabella Rossellini was born in Rome, the daughter of actress Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini. Her multi-faceted talents were highlighted by the Taviani brothers in Il prato (1979), before being consecrated by David Lynch in Blue Velvet (1986), which was followed by many other major films. She has modeled for photographers such as Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon, becoming the iconic face of an era. She is an active environmentalist and committed to the preservation of the arts.

Gabriele Salvatores
Gabriele Salvatores is an Italian director and screenwriter. He has received many awards, including an Oscar for Best Foreign Film for Mediterraneo in 1991, on top of the David di Donatello for best film and the Nastro d’Argento for directing. Along with Maurizio Totti and Diego Abatantuono, he is one of the founders of the film production company Colorado Film and has worked on several of its projects. His lengthy filmography includes Sogno di una notte d’estate (1983), Marrakech Express (1989), Turné (1990), Mediterraneo (1991), Puerto Escondido (1992), Sud (1993), Nirvana (1997), Io non ho paura (2003), Quo vadis, baby? (2005), The Happy Family (2010), Educazione siberiana (2013) and Il ragazzo invisibile 1 e 2 (2014-2016). In 2011 he won the World Awards of the Federazione Italiana Archivi Televisivi with the documentary 1960.