“Cinema is now in the hands of the young.” The theme of generational change dominated the presentation of the contenders for the 17th edition of the Mario Verdone Award, held in Rome on 23 September. Since 2009, the accolade has aimed to shine a light on Italian filmmakers and their debut works. It is a need underlined by Italian director, screenwriter and actor Carlo Verdone, who stressed how the Italian industry must offer more opportunities to new filmmakers and actors at a time when, in his view, it still tends to regularly bank on the same names.

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This is how Verdone - who each year, together with his sister Silvia and brother Luca, presents the prize named after their father, a film critic and cinema historian - introduced the announcement of this year’s shortlist of five, selected by the director of the Lecce European Film Festival, Alberto La Monica, and by the SNGCI, chaired by Laura Delli Colli. In the running are On Edge by Davide Angiuli; Strike - Figli di un’era sbagliata by Gabriele Berti, Giovanni Nasta and Diego Tricarico; The First Child by Mara Fondacaro; Tienimi presente by Alberto Palmiero; and Notte prima degli esami 3.0 by Tommaso Renzoni. The winner will be announced during the closing weekend of the 27th edition of the European Film Festival, set to take place in Lecce from 7-14 November.

For Alberto La Monica, the Mario Verdone Award represents one of the ways of expressing the vitality of Italian cinema and shares with the European Film Festival a commitment to seeking out new perspectives on the present. “The award demonstrates the creativity and ability of Italian cinema to offer new stories,” the festival director told Cineuropa, emphasising the gathering's own focus – its programme will be announced in the coming weeks – on “contemporary, original and interesting European stories that can portray and offer a better understanding of the realities from which they emerge”.

La Monica also reaffirmed the role of the Lecce-based event in promoting European cinema. “Countering the dominance of US cinema and giving visibility to European films is essential work,” he stressed, recalling the journey of “an independent festival that, despite the challenges involved in organising it, has built up solid credibility over the years among international producers and distributors, as well as audiences and critics alike”.

Among the winners of the most recent editions of the Mario Verdone Award are Roberto De Paolis for Pure Hearts (this year, the director was at Venice with Snake), Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo for Boys Cry (they, too, were on the Lido this year as co-screenwriters of the aforementioned Snake), Margherita Vicario for Gloria! (later awarded three statuettes at the David di Donatello Awards) and, last year, Greta Scarano for Siblings (subsequently the winner of the European Young Audience Award at the 2026 European Film Awards).