Ribalta Experimental Film Festival is a new event completely dedicated to experimental cinema in Italy. The festival will take place in Vignola (MO), Emilia-Romagna at the headquarters of the Ribalta club, with the screenings at the Bristol Cinema in Savignano sul Panaro (MO). Its purpose is to give voice to a kind of cinema that doesn't have one. A cinema that is new, innovative and avant-gard.
RIBALTA (the Limelight)
Being in the limelight means to stand in the most exposed and visible part of the stage, and thus it can mean "to hold an important part of the scene" But in Italian "Ribalta" also refers to the verb Ribaltare: "To turn upside-down", or "to put in perspective". Ribalta Experimental Film Festival has the ambition to be a visible and relevant proscenium for the kind of cinema that changes our minds, defies our bon ton watching habits.
EXPERIMENTAL
Experimental cinema is hard to define. A cinema that breaks the narrative, and most of all visual, bounds to wich we're used. A cinema that elaborates on film medium to its fullest, by including even the most extreme possibilities. John Cage said it well: an experimental action is one the outcome of which is not forseen; the cinema we're looking for is a cinema of the unpredictable.
FILM
Ribalta Experimental Film Festival is a contest for short-lenght experimental films. We chose to focus on short films in order to give voice to young, non-institutional, explorational cinema. The kind of cinema that silently prepares the future of the "seventh art", by experimenting upon new forms of expression.
FESTIVAL
The festival will take place in Vignola (MO) at the headquarters of the Ribalta with the screenings at the Bristol Cinema in Savignano sul Panaro (MO). It’s a newly-born event: a new festival of experimental cinema in Italy, the first in the area of Modena, in Vignola. The Ribalta club is a small no-profit association run by passionate amateurs that for the last 10 years has been differenciating itself for a cultural offer both, important and marginal, new and avant-guarde.
The Festival is composed of several sections. Only works produced in the last two years (2022-2023) under 40 minutes (under 20 minutes only for RIBALTA ANIMATA) in length will be taken into consideration. Films that were not made in 2022/2023 are also accepted only if they have never been screened before in Europe and/or Italy or, even, completely unreleased. Only for these works, not made in 2022/2023, are asked to guarantee a premiere at the Festival - in this case, it's necessary to write it down briefly in the cover letter.
Sections open to submissions:
- THE MAIN COMPETITION, open to experimental films, videos which innovate the artistic field of moving images.
- LIMINA, open to not quiet experimental films: peculiar, unclassifiable pictures; art films unafraid to dare.
- RIBALTA ANIMATA - SOUND BY FRAME, competitive section of the Festival, curated by Roberto Paganelli (OTTOmani Association), dedicated to animated short films characterized by a creative relationship between animated image and soundtrack.
Films with particular attention to the creative interaction between sound and animated image will be admitted to the selection, including both video clips as well as the most diverse experimental forms, more abstract or figurative, which propose an original and generative use of sound in combination with the image.
It is at the discretion of the selection committee whether to program the films in the Main Competition or in Limina. Also at the discretion of the selection committee, some films may be invited to participate in the Festival as SPECIAL SCREENINGS, out of competition.
The third edition of Ribalta Experimental Film Festival’s Main Competition will feature an outstanding jury, made of 7 passionate cinephiles and experts in the field.
The following awards are to be assigned:
- Golden Arrow for Best Film
- Arrow for Best Director
- Arrow for Best Script/concept
- "Freak" Arrow for Best Folly
- Honorable Mention/Special Arrow
The third edition of Ribalta Experimental Film Festival’s LIMINA section will feature a unique Jury, made of the young students that are going to attend REFF Academy course, completely dedicated to disclosure experimental cinema to the next generation.
The following awards are to be assigned:
- LIMINA Best Film
- LIMINA Best Performance
- LIMINA Honorable Mention
More information will be released in the coming months about the awards and jury for the new RIBALTA ANIMATA. SOUND BY FRAME section.
Since the Ribalta Experimental Film Festival is held by amateurs and passionate cinephiles, who believe in culture as a pluralistic and intangible value, the awards assigned by the jury are purely symbolic. The selected films are going to be judged by an exceptional jury, and seen by a vast audience of film lovers.
There's more! The winners will have the chance to participate in Nonantola Film Festival, between April and May.