The Lorenzo Vecchio Prize goes to the experimental short Dieci Cadute, by the filmmaker Nicola Console: “through an original varieties of techniques and an ingenious combination of cinematographic experimentation and political theme, the short film represents a historical time of great changes, imagining an impossible role reversal in order to tell the anger towards the power”. The award for the Best Short Film therefore is received for the first time by a Sicilian director.

The Jury members also award four special mentions, one for each category of the international competition. Csicska, by the Hungarian Attila Till, receives the special mention as best narrative short “for the quality of the mis-en-scène and the ability to define, in a few minutes, characters with a strong identity and family relations which, with their archaic brutality, mirror a universal condition”. Smolarze, a Polish short directed by Piotr Zlotorowicz, is awarded the special mention as best documentary, for the ability to capture a fragment of reality in a very naturalistic way, avoiding embellishments and showing the toughness and dignity of a lost world”. The prize is received by the director of the photography, Malte Rosenfeld.

“For the excellent technique working for a poetics which is able to combine the beauty of the line with the waiting for the lover”: the special mention as best animation goes to the Italian short Fiumana, directed by Julia Gromskaya. Kinoki (France/Germany) is awarded as the best experimental short (the prize was received by the filmmaker Sebastian Helm), “for the powerful comic imagination with which, drawing on archive materials, it manages to tell new stories, showing the potentials implied in the cinematographic image and offering fun solutions for a better life”.

The eleventh edition of Magma – mostra di cinema breve comes to an end with the awarding of the winners of the international short film competition. The Jury is presided over by the director of Coming Soon Television, Adriano Amidei Migliano, together with the actress Sandra Ceccarelli, the artistic director of the Leeds International Film Festival, Chris Fell, the director of the monthly cinema magazine Duellanti, Marco Toscano, and the filmmaker Roberta Torre.

Magma 2012 is made possible with the support of Mibac – Direzione generale per il cinema, Sensi Contemporanei, Regione Siciliana – Assessorato Turismo, Sport e Spettacolo, Sicilia Film Commission.