Modena, “Future Film Festival”, the freedom to create with few means

Modena, “Future Film Festival”, the freedom to create with few means

Quality animations despite reduced means and the relationship between creativity and artificial intelligence. These are some of the themes Future Film Festival, the first Italian festival dedicated to animated cinema, visual effects, virtual reality and augmented reality, gaming and media art, which returns to Modena for the third year, from Friday 24th to Sunday 26th November, with the novelty of free access to the initiatives, while places last.

The first part of the festival concluded in recent days, in the historic venue of Bologna, the event, now in its 23rd edition, arrives at the Cinema Astra in via Rismondo 21 and at the Laboratorio Aperto in via Buon Pastore 43, where workshops on design are scheduled , conferences and non-stop screenings of animated shorts. The theme of this edition is "Be Kind Remake”, or the possibility of creating and producing cinema with few means, favoring the inventiveness of the authors and hyper-technology.

The Future Film Festival is promoted and organized by Doc Network, the largest Italian network of culture and communication professionals
creativity, in collaboration with the Friends of the Future Film Festival Association, and with the support of the Municipality of Modena.

“The city of Festivals continues its growth path - comments the Councilor for Culture Andrea Bortolamasi – with the Future Film Festival we bring the best of animation to Modena, in a program of innovation and experimentation. A festival that has found fertile ground in our city to take root and grow, in network, with the city's cultural system.”

The Modena festival opens on Friday 24 November at the Cinema Astra. Among the scheduled events, the screening of the animated film stands out at 10 am in the Turchese room "Slide" (USA, 2023), created by American animator Bill Plympton, one of the international protagonists of independent animation, to whom the Festival pays homage this year. From 10 am to 22 pm, in the foyer, the screening of the works selected for “New frontiers”, the competition dedicated to augmented reality and virtual reality, won this year by Pedro Harres with his “From the main square”; the screening will also be repeated on the following two days of the Festival. At 15 pm, however, in the Emerald room, it is scheduled “Experience Cinema”, a conference dedicated to the future of cinemas, coordinated by the journalist Stefano Radice, with the participation of Rai cinema, Nexo, Cinema Troisi, Cinema Anteo and Cinema Astra. Also in the Smeraldo room, from 20 pm, the winners of the Future film festival 2023 will be announced, with a special screening of the award-winning film and short films.

Saturday 25 November, at the Open Laboratory, is the day of “Future Videogames Hackaton”, a real marathon (from 10 am to 22 pm) which sees young developers and video game makers engaged in the creation of an original video game. The initiative is organized in collaboration with Power up Team, Open Laboratory, Smart life festival, AD Consulting Modena and Orbital Games. At 16.30 pm, at the Cinema Astra, in the Rubino room, it takes place "Generations", a masterclass conducted by Fabrizio Modina of the M-Cube Foundation, dedicated to the current affairs of heroes and fantastic worlds generated by animation, cinema, comics, video games, television and literature. From 18 pm, in the Smeraldo room, some Portuguese animated short films from the Monstra Festival will be screened; the initiative is organized in collaboration with Tecnica Mista and the Embassy of Portugal in Italy. At 20pm, again in the Emerald Room, a special screening of the documentary is scheduled “Michel Gondry, Do it yourself” by Francois Nemeta, presented at the Venice Film Festival last September.

The workshop is scheduled for the last day of the festival, Sunday 26 November “Coloring worlds”, dedicated to the creation and coloring of backgrounds for animation. The initiative, which takes place at 15pm at the Cinema Astra, is curated by Arts and Crafts Modena. Among the final events, there are also various screenings, including, from 17 pm, in the foyer, “With open eyes/Future film festival 2023”, a selection of animated short films from the vast official programming of the Future Film Festival curated by the cartoonist and illustrator Manuele Fior. At 20pm, in the Emerald Room, screening of “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” by Pierre Foldes, winner of the best film award of the Future Film Festival 2023.

The complete program of screenings and festival initiatives is available online on this page place