Here is what happened in the third edition of the Rome International Documentary Festival, held from December 5 to 9 2024, at Nuovo Cinema Aquila in Rome: 34 films representing a total of 23 countries, up to 8 screenings per day, over 2,000 attendees, more than 20 guest directors from around the world, and over 200 participants in our 3 Masterclasses and the Documentaristə Anonimə meeting in collaboration with 100autori. The films were very well received by the audience, with an average rating of 4.4 out of 5 — a proof of the quality of the selection, and also of the potential of theatrical documentary film distribution.
“1489” by Shoghakat Vardanyan, Armenia
Jury Statement:
“A profound and personal journey. A search for truth in which the answers are revealed through ethically rigorous and emotionally powerful storytelling. A narrative that unveils a shared humanity — one that too often is silenced.”
“SONGS OF SLOW BURNING EARTH” by Olha Zhurba, Ukraine
“War is portrayed through its absurd and often grotesque arc — from horror to terror to the acceptance of a new and surreal normality. A documentary that, despite everything, holds on to hope and looks toward the future, beyond the physical and moral ruins”.
ALMA DEL DESIERTO by Monica Taboada-Tapia (Colombia, Brasil)
Jury Statement:
“An unexpected protagonist in a story set at the edge of the world. Where humanity seems to vanish, a journey unfolds among forgotten souls in an unknown land. A documentary that opens new horizons for the storytelling of reality.”
QUIR, by Nicola Bellucci
Jury Statement: “With intimate and in-depth access to a range of exceptional characters who open their hearts and wholeheartedly embrace the project, the film weaves a touching and ironic portrait of Palermo’s queer community over recent decades — and, by reflection, of our broader society, its prejudices, and its struggles to embrace difference. Masterfully shot, the film is a hymn to life, love, and freedom — themes it explores with deep humanity, creative skill, and intellectual sharpness.”
TINERET , by Nicolò Ballante
“A fresh and sincere narrative that navigates the struggles, aspirations, and pains of a magnetic protagonist who fights — song after song, choice after choice — with vital and poetic energy.”
COME SE NON CI FOSSE UN DOMANI by Matteo Keffer and Riccardo Cremona
“An intense and nuanced journey behind the scenes and into the depths of a world inhabited by young activists — their hopes, struggles, anxieties, and contradictions.”
NEGLI OCCHI DI ADÈLE by Marie Alice Falys, Belgium
Jury Statement:
“The director’s camera draws us into Adèle’s world, capturing her restlessness and the contrasts of her adolescence with grace — offering an intimate, delicate, and powerful portrait, free from judgment and untouched by any rigid definition of gender.”
SEWING MACHINE by Ülo Pikkov (Estonia, Ukraine)
Jury Statement: “A family story becomes a universal tale. Through the creative use of archival material, animation, and a bold, ironic narrative, the intrepid journey of a woman rises from the past — a journey where the destination is always rebirth.”
SE IO NON DIMENTICO by Vincenzo De Caro
The MyMovies Award is voted online on the mymovies.it platform.
L’ERA D’ORO by Camilla Iannetti
Jury Statement: “A story of intense relationships, set in an all-female family context, filmed with grace, attention and personality. The film delves deep with a subjective gaze, showing great sensitivity and empathy towards its protagonists. The young author also demonstrates her ability to move between images in a unique, free, creative and not only narrative way”.
BOSCO GRANDE by Giuseppe Schillaci
Jury Statement: “A dark fable, a poignant portrait of a man — and at the same time of an era and a city — trapped in a past that seems never to fade. We award the Zalab View broadcast prize to Bosco Grande by Giuseppe Schillaci for the masterful, both surgical and poetic, way in which it tells a very particular story that effectively resonates on a universal level.”
François Chambe for “La meccanica delle cose” by Alessandra Celesia, France, Germany
Boris Debackere, Thomas Ferrando for “HOLD ON TO HER” by Robin Vanbesien, Belgium
Mari Bakke Riise (A5 Film) for A NEW KIND OF WILDERNESS by Silje Evensmo Jacobsen
L’ULTIMA ISOLA by Davide Lomma
Jury Statement:
“Today, people are constantly overstimulated, leading to a normalization of images that should unsettle us, and of sounds that should play a fundamental role in storytelling. In this documentary, the viewer is given no distractions — instead, they are drawn into the narratives of eight ordinary people sharing their experiences, and by the island itself, which speaks for itself. Stripping the experience down to its essence and challenging the viewer’s attention without resorting to provocation was a bold choice — one that allowed the film to fully convey its message”.
DEATH OF A SAINT di Patricia Bbaale Bandak
Jury Statement:
“We have decided to award Death of a Saint for Patricia’s obsessive and tenacious quest to understand what happened to her mother. To know her at all costs—deeply, viscerally, in her full and raw totality. To dismantle her sanctity and encounter her in her truth. It is a cathartic and universal call: the need to search for one’s mother everywhere—in Uganda, in the eyes of a father, in the faces of aunts, in the faint smile of old photographs, in nightmares and sleepless nights”.
