Vita gazette – “PEDAGIO” (Toll) by Carolina Markowicz triumphs at the Rome Film Festival. The Grand Jury Prize goes to “Urotcite Na Blaga” (Blaga’s Lessons) by Stephan Komandarev. Alba Rohrwacher won the Best Actress award for “My Hair Hurts”, while Herbert Nordrum won the Best Actor award for Hypnosen. Best director to Joachim Lafosse for “Un silence.” Paola Cortellesi won the Audience Award and one of the Special Jury Awards for her debut film as a director.

The awards ceremony of the 18th Rome Film Festival took place at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone in the presence of the president of the Fondazione Cinema per Roma Gian Luca Farinelli and the artistic director Paola Malanga.

At the 18th Rome Film Festival, the debut feature “Pedágio” (Toll) by Carolina Markowicz won. Markowicz’s film, a Brazil/Portugal production, stars Maeve Jinkings, Kauan Alvarenga, Thoma’s Aquino, Aline Marta Maia and Isac Graca. The film is set in Cubatao, a city in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, which boasts an ecological record but is among the most industrialised in Brazil, suspended between the greenery of the countryside and the fumes of pollution.

The contradictory skyline of Cubatao dominates the second film by Carolina Markowicz (author of the very hard ‘Charcoal’, 2022), and within the folds of the city move Suellen, the person responsible for paying the toll on the bustling highway, and her son Tiquinho, a seventeen-year-old passionate about classic divas, who films himself miming their songs, wearing pink sweaters and surrounded by strobe lights. Tiquinho’s performances end up online, and Suellen is embarrassed, so she decides to enrol her son in a sexual reconversion seminar. An everyday drama steeped in irony.

Best Film: PEDÁGIO (TOLL) by Carolina Markowicz

Grand Jury Prize: UROTCITE NA BLAGA (BLAGA’S LESSONS) by Stephan Komandarev

Best director: JOACHIM LAFOSSE for A Silence

Best Actress – “Monica Vitti” Award: ALBA ROHRWACHER for My Hair Hurts

Best Actor – “Vittorio Gassman” Award: HERBERT NORDRUM for Hypnosen (The Hypnosis)

Best screenplay: ASLI ÖZGE for Black Box

Among the special awards, recognition went to the Italian film “C’è Ancora Tomorrow”, Paola Cortellesi’s directorial debut.

The other two special mentions went to the films “Ashil” (Achilles) by Farhad Delaram (Iran) and “The Monk And The Gun” by Pawo Choyning Dorji (Bhutan).

The Grand Jury Prize was awarded to “Blaga’s Lessons” (Bulgaria) by Stephan Komandarev, the best direction to the Frenchman Joachim Lafosse for “Un silence” (A Silence). The best actors are the Norwegian Herbert Nordrum for the film “Hypnosen” (The Hypnosis) directed by Ernst De Geer and the Italian Alba Rohrwacher for “My Hair Hurts” by Roberta Torre, a tribute to the unforgettable diva Monica Vitti. The best screenplay is “Black Box” by Asli Özge (Germany-Belgium). Furthermore, the BNL First Film award was awarded to the Anglo-Japanese film “Cottontail” by Patrick Dickinson. The Best Comedy – “Ugo Tognazzi” Award is the American film “Jules” by Marc Turtletaub, while the Siae Award was awarded to the Italian “Il primo Figlio” by Mara Fondacaro.