Antonio Maciocco’s shortfilm “Achentannos” won the Best Cinematography Award at the 21 Islands International Short Film Festival in New York. The shortfilm’s cinematography is curated by Sassari-born filmmaker Michele Gagliani.
The 21 Islands Short Film Fest is dedicated to shortfilms from islands of all over the world, from Japan to United Kingdom, from Princes’ Islands to Sardinia. The third edition has just taken place from 7th to 10th February at Pregones Theater, in the Bronx.
Before arriving in The Big Apple, Maciocco’s work gained many successes in few months: it won Best Comedy Award and Audience Award at Taiwan’s Joy International Film Festival, Kentzeboghes Award at Babel Film Festival, a special mention at London Worldwide Comedy Short Film, the final at Los Angeles Cine Fest and it’s been selected by many international film festivals. “Achentannos” has been produced by 9muse with Babel Association and Società Umanitaria-Sardinian Film Archive.
After a law degree in Sassari, Antonio Maciocco attended prestigious filmmaking and playwriting courses like “Laboratorio cinema 87” in Rome, kept by cinema luminaries like Enrico Ghezzi and Giuseppe Lanci. He made several films like NEI Award winner shortfilm “Permesso?”(2010) and shot the music video to latest Ester Formosa and Elva Lutza’s single “A su tramontu”. He was the artistic director of 6th and 7th edition of Sardinia Film Festival.
Michele Gagliani has been a member of Sassari Cineclub and Sorso Cineclub’s director for a long time. He has built his long and passionate carreer on the audiovisual world: after working at BENCAST for 14 years, he worked as a cameraman in Italian and international tv shows. Afterwards, he attended training courses at Cinecittà, at Saxarubra, at Dear and he became a video communication technician. Nowadays he does mainly commercials, music videos and documentaries, such as the recent “Drop in”, a report on “new poverty” in Sassari. Moreover, he designed a detective web series set in the 70s with rock band Apollo Beat, with which he won the Best Web Series Award at the 62nd Taormina International Film Festival.
When cinematographer Michele Gagliani was interviewed by Sardinia Film Festival, he said: «As soon as director Antonio Maciocco knew about the award, he immediately notified me that. My first reaction was surprise and emotion. For the lighting, I took inspiration from the story: an old man who faces his 100th birthday, the twilight of his life. That’s why lights become warm and clean, they underline the furrows on a face scarred by time and by sorrow due to events of his past that suddenly come back right for his 100 years. What I did is, basically, try to read the story through the magic of lighting».
a frame of “a chent’annos” credits @Legacy Film Festival on Aging San Francisco
“Achentannos” is the story of zio Pietro, an old man who lives in a small town in Sardinia. It’s his 100th birthday, his village in anxious to celebrate him, but he feels lonesome and unhappy, particularly since his wife Maria died. His family decides to invite the tv show “Pomeriggio nel borgo” crew to surprise him, annoying and ignorant host Pierdamiano included. Despite this, the unexpected visit of his granddaughter Sara will bring the will to live and to love back to zio Pietro.