“I think it will be an interesting journey. Gabriella Buontempo, President of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, (CSC), invited me, and I accepted. I’ll be working alongside colleagues I greatly admire, and film schools from around the world have signed on for the festival.”

The first edition of the CSC International Student Film Festival will take place in Rome from November 10 to 15, under the artistic direction of Marco Bellocchio and Steve Della Casa, the CSC’s film Archivist. A jury chaired by Director Emanuele Crialese will select the winners from among short films made by emerging filmmakers in 101 countries. The films were selected by a team of young audiovisual professionals: Pierfranco Allegri, Ilaria Ferretti, Leonardo Malaguti and Silvia Pezzopane. Joining Crialese on the jury are Slovenian Director and Producer Špela Čadež, Chinese Director Huo Meng and Congolese Director Dieudo Hamadi.

Crialese, who is immersed in preparations for his next film, prefers to keep details under wraps. The film is expected to be titled Cuore nero (Black Heart), after Silvia Avallone’s novel, which appears to have provided the starting point for the story.

Short films are a training ground for future directors. Was that true for you?

“I graduated from New York University and spent 12 years in the United States — four studying and the rest working. That’s where I made my first film. We used to make little five-minute movies. My classmates included Todd Phillips and Edward Berger, and we helped one another out, working with crews of just four people.

“I was lucky. I went there intending to stay for three months, but I was awarded a full-tuition scholarship, which covered my studies, so I stayed. I worked as a waiter, and with help from my employer, a New York restaurateur, I managed to raise $15,000 to make my first independent film on 35mm.”

Can you learn filmmaking in school?

“François Truffaut used to say that you learn cinema by making films. No one can teach you to be talented. A school gives you the opportunity to put your ideas into practice and build relationships with people from all over the world — people you can count on, exchanging advice and learning from one another throughout your lives. It’s a relationship of give-and-take that lasts forever.”

How difficult is it to make a short film?

“I won the scholarship that allowed me to study in America thanks to a short film. I could barely speak English, so I expressed myself through the images that came into my mind.

“At NYU, they had devised a fantastic course. They would put a camera in the students’ hands and give them five hours to make a film. At the end of that time, you had to come back with a finished piece. Five hours of shooting and one night of editing: it was a way of teaching us that you also have to know how to work fast.”

How much have you changed since those early attempts?

“I’m drawn to the same themes. I’m always searching for a certain clarity in islands, fishermen, simple but powerful stories and folk legends. That’s still the direction of my work. I’m simply older now, and that comes with responsibility.”

How is Italian cinema doing?

“That’s the big question. I think every year or two, new talents emerge who are worth watching. Unfortunately, the situation has become difficult lately, amid the controversy over tax credits and the broader economic challenges facing the industry. Younger producers and directors have been hit particularly hard. There’s no real infrastructure to help new talent find its voice and grow. In that respect, we’re still dinosaurs.”

The festival includes a section devoted to horror. What is your relationship with the genre?

“I don’t follow it much. It gets under my skin too easily, unless it’s clearly comedic or splatter horror. I made myself watch Dario Argento’s films because I admire him enormously, but every horror movie takes me on an emotionally exhausting journey.”

This time, you’re the one doing the judging. How do you feel about criticism?

“It’s always incredibly hard. At the university I mentioned, they had a system for teaching us how to handle criticism. Our little films were screened for all the classes together with the filmmaker in the room. They taught us how to withstand the weight of other people’s judgments.

“Later in life, sometimes you handle it well, sometimes not so well. But you make a film because you want to show it to people. When the criticism is brutal, though, it becomes a very tough game.”

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