The twenty-eighth edition of Ortigia Film Festival, the Syracuse city cinema festival directed by Lisa Romano and Paola Poli, concluded on September 25 with the awards ceremony. It brought to the island, which constitutes the oldest part of the Sicilian city, Italian and international films, encounters with authors and performers, documentaries, short films, and events dedicated to training and to the new generations.
The jury for the Feature Films – Debuts and Second Works, chaired by Carla Signoris and composed of Gloria Satta and Fabio Segatori, selected Nicolangelo Gelormini’s La Gioia as Best Film, with the following motivation:
Although inspired by a chilling real crime, the film transcends mere reportage to investigate with deep psychological insight the morbid and destructive dynamics that shaped the events. The director avoids documentary reconstruction in favor of a tension-filled narrative that tells of a relationship ruled by deceit and manipulation, never judging the characters, portrayed by the extraordinary and courageous Valeria Golino, Saul Nanni, and Jasmine Trinca.
The Best Actor Award went, ex aequo, to Babak Karimi and Ivar Wafaei for Balcanica by Nicola Sorcinelli. Here is the jury’s motivation:
In the roles of a father and son who are Afghan musicians, fleeing the Taliban who have banned all forms of art, they bring us into the heart of the migrants’ tragedy. On their endless journey through the desolate landscapes along the Balkan route, their toil and suffering become ours. Their dramatic yet restrained performance blurs the line between screen and audience. It moves us without a trace of sentimentality.
They also won the Best Screenplay Award for La Gioia, credited to Giuliano Scarpinato, Benedetta Mori, Nicolangelo Gelormini, and Chiara Tripaldi, with the following motivation:
A writing that transformed a true story into a narrative that never yields to the temptations of chronicle, explanation, or judgment. An essential writing capable of rendering complex, profoundly human characters without absolving or condemning them, leaving the actors room to explore their contradictions, fragility, and shadowed sides. A screenplay that does not seek gratification or impact, but entrusts gestures, words, and silences with the task of telling what, in a case like this, would have been far too easy to explain.
A Special Mention was awarded to Edoardo Pesce for his performance in Il Grande Giaffa by Marco Santi. Here is the jury’s motivation:
For his versatility and the courage that, since the start of his career, has driven him to move from ironic roles to dramatic ones with the same credibility and intensity, always outside stereotypes. Brilliant in complex, violent, or marginal characters such as the boxer in Dogman, as well as in the meek and seemingly doomed roles like the protagonist of Il Grande Giaffa, Edoardo was also a delightful young Alberto Sordi. He confirms himself as one of the strongest talents on which Italian cinema can currently rely.
For the International Documentary Competition, the jury chaired by Mattia Colombo and composed of the students of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Sicily campus awarded Where the Waves Took Her by Jana Stallein with the CSC Sebastiano Gesù Best Documentary Award. Auber 99 by Giuseppe Schillaci received a Special Mention.
Among the other recognitions of the Ortigia Film Festival we note the Special OFF18/2026 Prize to Scarpe Rotte by Roberta Torre, awarded by the Artistic Direction; the Banco BPM Career Award, went to Carla Signoris; and the OFF18/2026 Cinematic Excellence Award to Peter Greenaway and Claudia Gerini, who met the Ortigia Film Festival audience during the week of the festival. Here are the two motivations:
To Peter Greenaway, for turning cinema into a place where painting comes to life and storytelling becomes vision. From I misteri del giardino di Compton House to The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, from The Last Storm to The Pillow Book, Greenaway has built an unmistakable cinema, nourished by painting, music, architecture, theatre, and literature. A universe where bodies, words, colors, and compositions become narrative matter, and where every film is born from the meeting of different arts. An author who chose not to conform to cinema but to reinvent it, with the freedom of someone who has always dared beyond time, beyond the boundaries of storytelling and forms, continuing to push the viewer toward new horizons of vision.
The black belt in Taekwondo that he earned for sporting merits is perhaps the best summary of Claudia Gerini’s artistic qualities, who with strict application and great will has achieved extraordinary results in Italian show business. Amused and impressed by her mentor Carlo Verdone and by the Manetti brothers, she has been able to portray intense dramatic roles for Giuseppe Tornatore, Sergio Castellitto, and Mel Gibson. She has focused on debut works and films directed by women. She has approached directing, singing, and even the dubbing of a memorable Barbie in Toy Story with originality. Enrico Lucherini, a renowned expert and acerbic commentator of stardom, used to say: “She is the only Italian actress you can put anywhere and she will always be at ease.”
Comments