28/10/2002

The Solinas Awards, amongst Italy’s most important training grounds for new screenwriters were set up in memory of the Sardinian author of some of Italian cinema’s most prestigious domestic and international hits, like Gillo Pontecorvo’s Kapo and The Battle for Algiers and Costa Gavras’, The American.
> This year’s jury: Francesca Solinas, Francesco Bruni, Antonio Capuano, Ugo Gregoretti, Maurizio Nichetti, Andrea Occhipinti, Furio Scarpelli and Maurizio Zaccaro awarded the Solinas 2002 award, a cash prize of Euros 5000, to Angelo Carbone. The money goes towards the production of his story entitled Un giorno perfetto per i pescecani bianchi. It was just one of 426 original entries this year. Carbone also received one of the three Solinas writing scholarships (also valued at Euros 5000); his fellow recipients being Vittorio Moroni for Una Rivoluzione and Andrea Magnani for La lunga corsa. The best screenplay awards – Euros 10,000 – went to Giovanni De Feo for La lunga infanzia.Two special mentions went to A Mosca, A Mosca by Roberta Ronconi and Rita l’acrobata by Susanna Gentili and Gianni Cardillo.
This year’s Solinas took place on the Island of La Maddalena in Sardinia and Fregene, south of Rome and commemorated the 20th anniversary of the founder’s death with the screening of Franco Solinas, film writer, a documentary by Marco Pontecorvo based on an idea by Solinas’ daughter. It was screened before an audience that included Costa Gavras and Gillo Pontecorvo.