In 2025, the Tribute program section will be dedicated to the Italian filmmakers Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino. The duo’s oeuvre includes captivating documentary as well as experimental-fictional works. At Crossing Europe, and addition to a number of other international prizes, they received the award for Best Documentary in 2014 (DELL’ARTE DELLA GUERRA / ON THE ART OF WAR) and a Special Jury Award for Best Fiction Film in 2018 (IL CRATERE / CRATER).
A program comprising seven works has been curated in collaboration with Luzi and Bellino. It forges both a creative and content-related bridge from their first to their most recent joint film and also provides a glimpse of their artistic influences through an additional film, that will be announced at a later date.
Different forms of power, the possibility of revolt, and the role of the image as a weapon constitute key elements in the works of the duo. Released in 2008, their first documentary, which accompanies the former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez to the world’s greatest oil reserve, expresses these characteristics already in its title: LA MINACCIA / THE THREAT was made at a time of extreme uncertainty when Chávez in Venezuela was considered both the symbol of revolution and of a drift towards the dictatorial. In DELL’ARTE DELLA GUERRA / ON THE ART OF WAR (2012), the story of four workers threatening to throw themselves off a crane to protest against the closure of a plant becomes an impressive metaphor for resistance against those in power. IL CRATERE / CRATER (2017) sees Luzi and Bellino turning towards a more experimental form of storytelling where the line between fiction and reality is blurred. They stage the teenage age as a time of revolution and once again demonstrate the power of the image. Celebrating its cinematic world premiere in Linz, the short film PRINCESS (2021) tells about the hidden class struggle and the attempt respectively urge to flee from reality through one’s dreams. In their latest feature film, LUCE (2024, world premiere at Locarno 2024), they once again turn their attention to the working class, telling the story of a young woman who goes through her everyday life between independence and solitude in an Italian coastal town, works under miserable conditions in a leather garment company and uses her imagination as an antidote to the prevailing patriarchal power structures.
The songs of the Italian musician Gianmaria Testa make up another thread running through three of Luzi and Bellino’s works. Before his premature death in 2016, Testa asked them for a video for his final album, which was released posthumously. POVERO TEMPO NOSTRO (2019) will also be shown at Crossing Europe. As an expression of their creative influences, the Tribute program will be complemented by an additional film, that will be announced with the program release on 18 April.
The 2025 Tribute programm:
Films by Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino:
LUCE (IT 2024), 95 min – Austrian Premiere
PRINCESS (IT 2021), 17 min – Cinematic World Premiere
POVERO TEMPO NOSTRO (IT 2019), 3 min – Austrian Premiere
IL CRATERE / CRATER (IT 2017), 93 min
– CROSSING EUROPE Special Jury Award - Best Fiction Film 2018
DELL’ARTE DELLA GUERRA / ON THE ART OF WAR (IT/US 2012), 85 min
– CROSSING EUROPE Social Awareness Award – Best Documentary 2014
LA MINACCIA / THE THREAT (IT 2008), 86 min
LUCE © Bokeh Film Stemal Entertainment
PRINCESS © Tfilm
IL CRATERE / CRATER © Alpha Violet
DELL'ARTE DELLA GUERRA / ON THE ART OF WAR © KINO Produzioni