Carlotta Cristiani

On a winter’s day, Nena gathers her family to celebrate her birthday. Il paradiso del pavone is a small journey into the intimacy and authenticity of human beings: a film about an extended family in which everyone talks but no one really listens. Until an unexpected event forces the family members to look into each other’s eyes and reveal themselves for what they really are.

A facetious coming-of-age fable that ends with a cheeky moral: what if allegedly "bad girls" were the best?

Benedetta, an obese fifteen-year-old yearning for attention, lives in a tawdry province in the south of Italy, emblematic of her inner landscape where everything could be and yet is not. She falls in love with Armando, aka Amanda, a young transvestite who is attracted to the young girl's innocence and begins an unhealthy relationship of mutual dependence with her. Amanda runs a carousel at the fair across the street from Benedetta's house, and the girl is magnetically drawn to this colorful and exciting world. But Amanda not only runs the carousel, she's also a call boy and sells drugs. Between intoxication and family rebellion and the discovery of sex - a great disappointment - she completes her rite of passage into adulthood.

Camilla is a successful attorney in her forties who accidentally causes the death of an undocumented migrant. At first, she is only interested in exonerating herself, but soon a feeling of responsibility starts nagging her: the dead body of a young man is lying in the morgue because their destinies fatally crossed. Camilla is used to shielding herself from pain, and she is incapable of really caring, even for her own daughter. In the midst of discovering the victim’s identity, she meets Bruno, the head of the morgue, who seems to be the only one who can truly understand her. The investigation she pursues will take her far from her surroundings until she will be forced to question herself, her unresolved past, and the life she really wants to live.

A prison drama where an old mobster and a prison guard must find a way to coexist so that imprisonment can become less so, and perhaps reveal the paradox that is behind the very concept of captivity.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many to stay at home, preventing people from meeting each other in real life. In the absence of any physical connection, this short explores alternative forms of contact among neighbors by making use of an old 16mm camera, a zoom lens, and a few meters of expired film.

A farming community gathers on a plateau on the border of three regions for the funeral of traditional agriculture. It’s a film to ward off the disappearance of a millenary culture.

In a prestigious hotel school, Luca learns the art of service. How much of his own freedom and adolescence must the young man give up to work at serving customers?

A daughter torn between two mothers, one who raised her with love and her biological mother, who instinctively claims her back.

Teo has a good job, a fiancee, a lover, no intention to assume any responsibility in his life. Meeting Emma, a blind woman, will upset his convictions.

For centuries, every year on September 8 myriad swarms of winged ants have been arriving on the Mount of Ants. Similar to clouds obfuscating the sky, these small insects mate in a wonderful flight followed by the death of all the males, which fall exhausted onto the yard of the church rising on the mountain top, once called "Santa Maria Formicarum". The mating flight blazes out like an ecstatic apparition before the eyes of the curious, of tourists and the faithful, who arrive here every year to admire and to celebrate this feast dedicated to the "Virgin of the Mount of Ants". This singular event is the starting point for reflection within the film, which asks questions about the small insects’ nature and that of human beings. Great writers like Nobel Prize-winner Maurice Maeterlinck and entomologist Carlo Emery have studied them a lot: their words echo out again, nowadays, in the voices of witnesses in the film.

Naples. Present day. Giovanna, a combative 60-year-old social worker on the frontline of the daily war against pervasive criminality, is confronted, like a modern Antigone, with a moral dilemma that threatens to destroy her work and her life. Giovanna runs an after-school centre that takes care of underprivileged children; a grassroots alternative to the mafia dominance of the city. But one day, young Maria, wife of a ruthless Camorra criminal on the run, and her two children take refuge at the centre, and ask Giovanna for protection.

Alberto Casiraghy and Josef Weiss are true bibliophile artists. One in Osnago, the other in Mendrisio, they have been dedicating themselves for years to valuable editorial and typographical activities, still printing with mobile characters, preserving the memory of a perfect ingenuity made of manual skills and technique, but also of inventiveness and poetry. Silvio Soldini gives us a realistic and poetical portrait of these two artists-artisans, who chose one of the oldest professions in a modern world, finding great success and approval.

Cora is a 19-year-old woman who has recently returned home for a gap year.  Her father is the mayor of Bucco, a town whose livelihood depends on the tourism of Christians who believe in the apparitions of the Virgin Mary.  While busy organizing the celebration of the Virgin of Bucco, an annual event that attracts numerous pilgrims, Cora notices a mysterious man whose presence will slowly rupture the tranquility of the town and her nascent adulthood.

Six Italian directors explore contemporary Milan in a rich and eclectic portrait of urban life and spaces—both rooted in history and bursting with a diversity of architecture and humanity.

Thirteen European directors explore the theme of Sarajevo; what this city has represented in European history over the past hundred years, and what Sarajevo stands for today in Europe. These eminent filmmakers of different generations and origins offer exceptional singular styles and visions.

A world-weary, widowed police inspector has to break his vow of self-isolation and get back on the field after his teen daughter is arrested for the possession of a gun tied to a much-publicized murder.

A widowed working-class father falls in love with a struggling, poor artist.

Anna is an accountant for an important insurance firm and lives with her longterm lover Alessio - a man who longs for a stable longterm relationship with children, home, etc. Anna, feeling as though the fire has fizzled in that relationship takes up with co-worker Domenico and the two begin a passionate affair.

Set in Genoa, the film concerns the financial struggles and emotional strain that occur after Michele loses his job. He and his wife Elsa are forced to give up their affluent lifestyle and cope with the tensions of moving into a smaller home, finding new work, and making sacrifices.

Meet Claudia: dull Giovanni is married with her, Giacomo is divorced and happy of it (until he meets her), and Aldo... is a taxi driver. At the end, who will have won her heart?

The story of a middle-aged bookshop owner, who becomes embroiled in a surreal swirl of romance and family secrets of infidelity, her energy levels registering in bursts of electrical interference - causing lightbulbs, traffic lights, toasters and computers to spontaneously spark and malfunction.

A Donatello award nominated short drama about some wartime children who are allowed to live in a derelict old factory so long as they loot other bombed-out buildings for the soldiers.

For ten years, immigrant Tobias has worked at a Swiss clock factory and, in the relentless ticking, he saw life go by without much expectation. One day, he sees Caroline, a former schoolmate from back in Eastern Europe, and falls in love with her, but she's married and has a daughter.

Lupo Mannaro, based upon the novel by Carlo Lucarelli, is a psycho-thriller revolving around the police commissioner Romeo who is obsessively convinced that the unsuspected Engineer Velasco, well known and respected in his milieu, is a dangerous serial killer. Romeo together with his determined assistant Grazia Negro and police superintendent Rago starts investigating with the help of the famous criminologist Del Gatto. The commissioner will often find himself in difficulty but won't give up the investigation due to his obstinacy and his strong vocation. The case slowly turns itself into a personal challenge between Romeo and Velasco, with unpredictable moves as well as strategies of defence and attack.

An endearing light comedy about a woman who spontaneously becomes a resident of Venice after her family left her begin. While enjoying the wonderful people she meets she achieves a new life and the first time independent of her family.

A Donatello award nominated drama following the lives and loves of three people at a drug rehabilitation facility.

Naples, 1959. Pure Mathematics professor Renato Caccioppoli, Bakunin's grandson, is a tortured soul. Recently discharged from the psychiatric hospital, left by his wife, and increasingly disillusioned with academia and the Communist Party, he lives his last days with painful detachment.